Excalibur
by FryConfesses
Summary: First and Second Story finished! AU version of Torchwood. When a mysterious figure begins reeking havoc on Earth, it turns out to a blast from the future for Captain James Harknell. Read and Review please!
1. Foreword

**A/N: Hello and welcome the first Excalibur story. I'd like to quickly state that this story is undergoing reconstruction - it wasn't very good and so now, has been rewritten - but the plot still hasn't changed. Bits have been extended, bits have been edited out completely. Chapters 1-7 will be posted today, while 8-Epilogue will take slightly longer. Apologies for the delay and please do not go on to read Excalibur: On The Edge until this is entirely uploaded. Thanks.**

* * *

The police officer on duty, Juliet Harvey, could see the man standing on Bournemouth Pier from the top of the cliff above it. He was tall; she would have said he was about 6 foot, with relatively short hair, with a spiked fringe. He was wearing a long military coat, wrapped around his body, protecting him from the cold sea wind. Although, Juliet admitted, it was a free country and he was perfectly entitled to stand on the pier, it was the dead of night and the sky that the man was staring up at was definitely stormy.

Then it happened. There was a massive wave that suddenly hit the beach and the pier slowly began to collapse into the sea. The man had reached the end of the pier by the time this had happened. Juliet Harvey ran along the zig-zagged path down to the beach, although she didn't know exactly what she could do to stop it.

When she arrived down on the beach, she could see that the man she had been watching had disappeared, although she couldn't think where to. However, she was surprised to bump into a different man. This man was also tall, had dark spiky hair and a pale face. He was wearing a dark warm coat, and underneath it, she could see the suit jacket, shirt and tie. He moved to pull something out of his inside pocket, it was a black leather pouch with a see through window over an ID card that listed the man as working on behalf of the Government, but she could not take in any other information, including his name. He moved to stop her investigating the fallen pier, which had completely collapsed and lay in fragments on the pale sandy beach.

"Hey! That's police business. What the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked indignantly.

"I know, but these are orders from above. Don't worry, we're dealing with this." The spiky haired man replied, with almost a patronising tone in his voice.

"Who are 'we' exactly?" Juliet replied, tugging on a bit of her black fringe that had fallen into her blue eyes, and tucking it under her hat.

"We're Excalibur." He stated. As he said it, she noticed a dark cloaked figure over the man's right shoulder.

"And is he one of you?" Juliet asked, raising an eyebrow quizzically. He turned, and shook his head at the rapidly retreating figure.

"I've got to sort things out here. You chase him and bring him back," the pale, dark haired man stated.

Juliet thought about telling him where to get off, however, she decided against it and began sprinting after the cloaked figure. However, the sand proved difficult to run on, which slowed her down greatly, although it did not seem to have the same effect on the cloaked figure, who managed to escape from her about five minutes later, by seemingly disappearing into thin air. Juliet returned to the area where the suited man had been, but he had also disappeared. Exhausted, she returned to her squad car, where she thought about radioing HQ, but before she could get around to it, she fell asleep in the driver's seat.

Meanwhile, in a black SUV on the other side of the street, the suited man and the coated man sat watching the squad car.

"Who was she?" the man with the military coat asked.

"Juliet Harvey, just a police officer," the man in the suit replied.

"Well, maybe we'll see her around," The other stated, before starting up the SUV and driving off.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Juliet Harvey was woken up by furiously rapid knocking on the window of her squad car door. Opening her eyes, she could see the head of the Hampshire and Bournemouth Police Force, Chief Constable Franks and her police partner, Jack Davies, both hammering at it with their fists.

She brushed herself down before opening the door and facing the wrath of her commanding officer. Chief Constable Andrew Franks had a sandy brown moustache with flecks of grey and was going grey around the temples.

"Bloody hell, Officer Harvey! You were on duty last night, where the hell were the messages to the station?" He yelled indignantly.

"I was told by a government official that they were dealing with the incident in question, sir and he prevented me from doing anything, in fact, he made me chase somebody to get me out of the way."

"What government body did he work for?" Franks asked, his face slowly turning redder and redder

"Excalibur, sir."

"Excalibur! Well, if you're going to throw that load of old cobblers at me, then you're clearly mad! If you spent more time doing your job and less time living in a dream world, we could have sorted this out without the media having to know!" He yelled, gesturing towards a clamour of journalists who were taking photographs and talking excitedly.

Suddenly, Juliet noticed a man standing on the edge of the group, the suited, dark coated, pale skinned, spiky haired man from last night. He put his hand to his ear and started to talk and began to walk away. Juliet began to move away from the Chief Constable, but her partner, Jack, pulled her back. The man turned around, noticed her and picked up his pace, walking swiftly to a car parked just by the police cordon.

"See, you're at it again," Franks continued irritably.

"Excuse me, sir, but how did the pier collapse?" Juliet asked.

"Rusty metalwork, bound to give out some day."

"Except, sir, there was a massive wave that seemed to destroy it and the sky was very stormy!"

"Don't be daft, officer. Officer Davies, please take Officer Harvey back to her house for a rest."

* * *

Jack Davies pulled the squad car up outside Juliet's apartment in Brockenhurst in the New Forest. "Are you sure you're alright, Juliet?" He asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Jack, I'm fine, just tired. I'll have a good rest today and I'll see you tomorrow at work, yeah? John will be back later and he'll look after me."

Jack nodded and smiled at her. "See you tomorrow. Have a nice rest!" Juliet slammed the door of the squad car closed and Jack sped off.

Juliet unlocked the blue door to her apartment block and went up the stairs to her first floor apartment and unlocked that door. As she had predicted, her boyfriend, John, who also worked in the Police as Chief Superintendent, was not home. She walked into the wooden floored and blue walled kitchen to put the kettle on and threw two pieces of bread that felt like they were about to go stale into the toaster. In the meantime, she tried to get her head together. Eventually, the toast popped and the kettle boiled and Juliet made herself a cup of tea with milk and no sugar, afterwards spreading butter and jam on the toast.

She moved over to the table in the sitting room and pulled up an IKEA chair and sat at the table clothed table, where she sipped her tea and munched on her toast and lost herself in her thoughts, while staring out of the large window onto the street outside.

Almost as soon as she had finished her toast, there was sudden commotion in the street outside. Juliet snapped out of her trance like state of mind as a black SUV screeched to a halt outside the apartment opposite Juliet's. Four people got out, the pale skinned suited man, with a man wearing a pale blue shirt and braces attaching his grey flannel trousers to his shoulders and a spiked up fringe, as well as a blonde and a brown haired woman, both of whom were dressed in black. The SUV drove off swiftly as the four ran to the black front door of the uninhabited apartment and the man in the shirt and braces kicked the door in.

Juliet ran from her sitting room into the corridor of her apartment, flung open her front door and ran down the stairs, hearing the door slam as she approached the front door. She opened it and watched the door opposite swing back closed again. She ran to the other side of the road and hid between a red Vauxhall and a beige Mini. The driver of the SUV ran round the corner of the street towards the apartment. He had short, black curly hair and was wearing a black leather jacket, a t-shirt and jeans. He pushed his body weight against the door and it swung open, allowing him to run through. Juliet waited until the door was about to swing shut, before sticking her foot in it, wedging it open and then following him in.

The building seemed to be creaking and moaning when she entered it. She knew it had only been uninhabited for about six months, due to supposed issues with asbestos in the walls and ceilings. She could hear noises above her head up on the second floor and she climbed the stairs two at a time until she arrived on the second floor. The lights had gone on this floor, so she took her pocket torch from her trouser pocket and turned it on. Juliet could see that the front door of the flat in front of her was wide open. She entered the corridor, which had flaking flowery wallpaper peeling off the walls. There were several doors leading off the corridor and she could swear that she could hear noises from behind them.

As she walked down the corridor, she was suddenly aware of something standing at the end of the corridor. It looked like a man, except, it seemed extra sensitive to the torchlight when Juliet shone her light at it. It was wearing a boiler suit and as she got closer, she could see that the face almost seemed cracked beyond recognition. It snarled at her as she got closer and she could see sharp incisors in its mouth. She let out a shriek and was suddenly aware of someone behind her.

"It's going to be okay," the driver of the SUV stated, as he injected a tranquiliser into her neck and Juliet's world went black.

* * *

Juliet blinked back into consciousness. Her brain felt muddled, as she suddenly thought that she was in a London Underground station with the curved wall behind her. As she looked around, she could tell that she was lying on a sofa which had three workstations facing her, where two people, the brown haired woman and the black haired, suited man were working. There was a water tower in the centre of the large room she was in, which fell into a stream that flowed rapidly through part of the room, dividing it in half. There was an office at the other end of the raised platform, with a glass wall facing the workstations.

"I'll give you something. You are persistent," A brown haired woman with a friendly face said, holding out a cup of tea, which Juliet stood up to take. "I'm Jane Asker; I'm second in command and alien technology expert. I don't need to ask who you are, Juliet Harvey."

"Wait, a minute, did you say aliens? You've got to be kidding me! They don't exist!" Juliet stated.

"So how would you explain what you saw in the flat earlier today, Juliet? If aliens don't exist, then you and I wouldn't be here."

Juliet heard a door open and looked to see the man she had seen earlier. He was still wearing a blue shirt, with a white t-shirt underneath it and a black waistcoat. He also wore grey flannel trousers. "Since the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Century, the human race has been drawing attention to itself. I'm James Harknell. Captain James Harknell. Here at Excalibur, we protect the United Kingdom from alien threats that are drawn to Earth. We have a beacon which draws down extra-terrestrial threats entering Earth's general vicinity to the New Forest. The team deal with them and cover them up."

The pale suited man and the blonde haired woman who had been working at the computers in front of her, turned around to face Juliet. The driver of the SUV appeared from behind a thick plastic curtain, dressed in a white medical coat. James began to introduce them to her.

"This is Robert Jones, general support and archivist, Laura Prince, technology expert and Doctor Alex Brown, the rest of the team." Robert gave her a knowing smile, while Laura murmured a greeting.

"I would shake your hand, Juliet," Alex stated, "but I'm currently in the middle of a post mortem of the guy we found in the flat." He then returned to the side room, sweeping back the plastic curtain and returning to the white walled medical centre.

"Those flats have been empty for months, though, asbestos or something? Nobody lives there." Juliet protested.

"Yeah, I think we came up with that excuse," James told her. "The truth was that there was a creature that lived in the walls that ate people. We got rid of it, but nobody will want to move back into it. Then, we stumbled across a dead body and an alien today, quite by chance."

"Alex, have you got any traces of ID?" Laura asked, moving across to her computer terminals at her workstation.

"Man in his early 20s, wedding ring. I've got a surname at least." Alex called back. "Cavendish, he was a builder and general handyman. He's got a load of his business cards in his pockets."

Juliet shot up from the couch and ran towards the medical section of the Hub, however, James stopped her at the doorway. "Wait a minute, I knew him! He finished my en suite bathroom the other week. He played five-a-side football with my boyfriend! Let me through!"

"I can't let you through. You're not a team member; therefore, you're not allowed to see this." James stated, still holding her back. "What we need is a police liaison. We need that link now more than ever. If you're willing to do it, then we can say that you've been moved on to Special Ops and if you're good enough, we'll make the move permanent."

"OK, I'll do it. I'm not promising it'll be permanent, but I'll do it."


	3. Chapter 2

Juliet had driven through Lyndhurst towards the Excalibur Hub, where she knew the hidden car park was. Pulling into a drive similar to those seen throughout the New Forest, her blue Peugeot drove along the wooded path until she reached the underground car park, where she could see the black SUV, which she parked next to. She walked towards a door which led from the car park to the Hub via a narrow and long tunnel. The passageway was dimly lit and the walls, which were covered in ivy, seemed to leer in at her as if they knew that she didn't belong there. After a walk that seemed to take forever, she reached the door that entered the vastness of the Hub.

Robert stood by the door, with a tray and a cup of coffee. She thanked him and took the cup of coffee and then the two of them walked up a metal flight of stairs to the conference room; a square shaped room which overlooked the rest of the Hub. Alex, Jane and Laura were already sat at the oval, wooden table, which had a television screen at one end and James stood at the head of it. Robert and Juliet settled in seats round the table and James slid the green folders around the table, they were thick and showed evidence of the fact that work had not finished at Excalibur when Juliet had left early that evening.

"So, as we established yesterday, the victim is one Marc Cavendish, 24, married and has a wife and a baby. He was a builder and a general handyman, who knew Juliet and her boyfriend. Alex, how did he die?"

"The cause of death seems to have been caused by having his throat ripped out, although the shock of seeing an alien may have caused his internal body system to shut down. The full report is in the file," stated Alex, who looked extremely tired, his face darkened by a five o'clock shadow. He and Jane did not look like they had got much sleep the previous night, while James, Laura and Robert looked fresh.

"Laura, do we have any ideas what kind of species we might be dealing with here? We've got one down in the Vaults that we got at the apartments, but does it match up to anything?" James asked.

"I haven't found anything in the species database yet. From what Alex has told us in the autopsy report, we can gather it is humanoid with a deeply scarred face and very sharp teeth. Of course, we are assuming that this is how and why Marc Cavendish died. The problem with this is that there are, of course, no witnesses to his death." Laura stated.

"Something I've been thinking about is; why Marc?" Juliet asked. "I've been a police officer for the last five years and I've never seen you show up at anything before. I doubt you investigate all the murders in this part of the country, so what's so special about him?"

"Cavendish was a relative nobody," Robert replied. "A builder is not really going to change the fortunes of the Universe. However, he disappeared for 2 weeks six months ago and since then, no one has known where he was, or why he disappeared. Apparently he was on the run again this time, when the creature tracked him down. We've been watching him since his first disappearance, because we believe that Marc Cavendish had an encounter."

"As Rob said, he may have found something he wasn't supposed to, however, we had no proof of this until now. At present, we're trying to find out who might have a grudge for him." Jane added.

James, still standing at the head of the table began his orders, "Right, Alex and Jane, I want you to go home and get some rest, you did sterling work last night. Robert and Laura, I want you to compile me some information on what caused that wave that destroyed Bournemouth Pier and whether there had been any in the months leading up to it, just in case we thought that they were unimportant. Juliet, you're with me and we're going to go and visit Marc's wife."

The team dispersed, except for Juliet, who waiting for James to turn off the screen on the wall. Then he led her down the metal staircase to the floor of the Hub and then round to his office, where he grabbed his coat from the hat stand just inside the door and walked back to Juliet.

"So, you have a boyfriend? Did you tell him about your promotion?" James asked.

"No, he had a pretty hectic day at work yesterday, what with the pier collapsing and everything. And anyway, I thought this was supposed to be a secret organisation?" She replied.

"It is. It's just pretty unusual for anyone in Excalibur to have a partner, because this job is so demanding. Jane and Alex are dating and they have been since before they were worked here, but Rob and Laura haven't seen anybody in years." James stated, as they crossed the stream that flowed through the Hub and approached the door to the car park and entered the tunnel. "What does your boyfriend do?"

"John? He's only Chief Superintendent of the Hampshire and Dorset Police Force."

"Oh? Well, he'll know about Excalibur already then. The police at the moment don't particularly like us sticking our noses in and telling them that they're wrong." James replied and then sarcastically stated "I can't think why."

"So, Excalibur isn't a group of vigilantes then, you're government recognised?"

"We're government recognised, but because of the nature of our work, we work outside them and the police. Also, we're a hell of a lot cooler," he quipped. "Catching aliens for a living rather than locking up robbers and looters? Much more fun catching aliens!"

"What about you? Do you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend?"

"No, not really my area," James stated, as they approached the end of the tunnel.


	4. Chapter 3

James and Juliet climbed into the SUV, which had six seats, three in the front, three in the back, although the middle seat in the front was folded down. The interior of the SUV was lit by floor lighting, and the back three seats had computer terminals stored in the backs of the front seats. James sat in the driver's seat, keying in the post code on the GPS by the driver's window, while twirling the keys around the index finger of his left hand.

"Ready to go?" James asked, as she was looking around in shock at the SUV. James pressed a button under his arm rest and a screen lifted itself out of the glove compartment by Juliet's seat to settle in the dashboard in front of her. He tapped on the touch screen and brought up the Cavendish report that had been written by Alex and Jane last night. "The computers in here are linked up to the Hub servers," he explained. "I know you knew him, so this might be a bit too close to home." His pale blue eyes looked deeply into Juliet's brown ones, as if he was trying to guess what she was thinking.

"It's fine, honestly. I've dealt with murder investigations before and if I had problems with it, I would let you know," Juliet replied quickly, giving a broad and toothy smile.

James put the key in the ignition and turned, causing the SUV to roar into life and as they left, passing Alex and Jane, who were putting on their motorcycle leathers and about to leave. Juliet waved at them and Alex gave a quick nod in reply, while Jane waved back. The SUV climbed the ramp up onto the dirt track that lead to the car park, through the greenery of the New Forest until they reached the end on the Lyndhurst Road. Juliet was reading the report on the screen intently. She may have been involved in many crime investigations, however, they had never involved people she had known personally. She sighed and swept her long, black hair away from her face.

"What's wrong?" James asked, his eyes firmly on the road.

"Nothing, I just thought my first day would be something drastically different from something I'm so used to. I thought we'd be hunting aliens or there would be UFOs in the sky. This is so normal that it doesn't feel like I've changed jobs."

"Well, the alien hunting and the UFOs in the sky are only on special occasions," James joked, a smile crossing his handsome face. "Don't worry, by the time this investigation is through, I'm sure you'll have seen your fair share of the action."

Juliet turned to face the window, watching Lyndhurst fly by. The SUV turned sharply into a one way system and drove still further along Lyndhurst High Street. They sped past the Ferrari dealership and the various bakeries, until they turned right into the Beaulieu Road.

"So, you think you know where Marc disappeared to for two weeks?" Juliet asked; a question that had been bugging her for ages.

"No, we really haven't a clue. I'm hoping that Sarah Cavendish might know. I've got some ideas, but I think they're all too horrible to contemplate. I'm thinking his death definitely wasn't accidental, I mean, how easy is it to accidentally tear your own throat out? It's whether or not he told his wife what happened that will help us with this. If not, we're back to square one."

The SUV pulled onto a gravel drive and James parked the car facing a red brick wall with three large Victorian houses, which seemed to regarding them both with suspicion as he and Juliet got out of the SUV. James checked his brown leather gun holster on his belt, before pulling his greatcoat around him to cover it up and buttoned it up. Juliet shivered and rubbed her arms, it was cold, remarkably cold for October. Due to the cold, Juliet and James sprinted to the Cavendish family home and swung open the black, creaky gate. The two of them walked up to the imposing front porch with the white flowered rose wrapped around it in a tight embrace, the gravel of the path crunching under foot. Juliet noticed an elderly woman gardening in the next garden and she shot her a small smile. They entered the porch and James began to hammer on the door.

Several minutes passed with James hammering on the door. Juliet peered through the letterbox and started calling, while James walked out of the porch and stared futilely through the bay windows into the house.

"They left yesterday, first thing. She and the baby went at about nine." The elderly neighbour called.

"Do you know where she might have gone?" Juliet asked pleadingly, the neighbour shook her head. "No forwarding address or anything?" The neighbour shook her head again.

"I'm sorry. Who are you two anyway?" She asked.

"I'm James and this is Juliet, we're both police officers. You wouldn't happen to have a spare key, would you?" James asked with a twinkle in both his eyes and his smile.

"Yes, but could I see some ID first?"

James and Juliet handed over their ID cards, and then she limped off to her house. They waited patiently in silence, with James looking admiringly at the well-kept garden next door. The old lady hobbled back to the hedge and passed them the spare keys. She gave them a half smile and then went back to her gardening.

James touched his ear and his Bluetooth headset connected his call to Robert, while Juliet opened the front door. "Sarah Cavendish and her child left yesterday morning and they took their car. If you can get onto the DVLA and find their license plate, then we can try and track them down."

In the meantime, Juliet was being haunted by ghosts and echoes of Marc Cavendish. Although she had lied to the team, Marc had actually been her boyfriend three years ago and so the house was full of memories for her. Clothes were strewn over the front hall way, clearly having been left out by Sarah, who must have been in a rush to leave. She approached the bannister of the grand staircase, which had an ornate acorn at the end of it.

"_Yeah, I'll check it out in a minute. James, we think we've found something. There have been twelve waves of similar sizes to hit Bournemouth beach in the last year. They were all caused by asteroid strikes, but clearly we thought that they posed no threat to anybody. The only difference between the other 12 and this one is that they didn't cause the pier to collapse, indicating that there was something different about this one. As to what connects it to the case of Cavendish, we're still looking." _Robert's voice stated in James' ear.

"Juliet, we need to find a study to try and find anything that links strange activity to Marc. Do you know where it would be?" James asked patiently.

Juliet advanced further up the imposing staircase to about half way up. There, she took off her black leather jacket, placed it on the stairs and lifted up three of the steps on squeaky hinges. She dropped through the hole, pulling her jacket through after her. James hared up the stairs after her and followed her descent into a medium study underneath the stairs. He let out a low whistle of appreciation.

"Marc did all of this himself. He was incredible at his job." Juliet told him.

James immediately wanted to return to business. "Right, I'll check the desk, and you can check the filing cabinet. Anything to do with what we're interested in should be fairly close to the top of any piles or the front of any files."

They had been searching through stacks of paper for about five minutes when James's headset bleeped again.

"_James, it's Alex. You've got to come to the block of flats where we found Cavendish. The police have just got wind of it. I did tell them that we were dealing with the situation, but they won't believe me until you show your face. The body was planted back on site last night with different injuries."_

"Alex, we'll be there as soon as we're finished here. Tell them anything but the truth about Cavendish and the alien. Juliet and I will be there soon."

Almost immediately afterwards, Juliet's mobile phone began to ring. It was Jack, her former police partner.

"Hey Jack," Juliet answered.

"_Juliet, we've had some bad news about your friend Cavendish."_

"He's dead. Yeah, I know, special ops are on the case."

"_Oh, la-de-dah, special ops are we now? We've got Alex Brown, but we still want to go through the formals, if that's alright by 'special ops'."_

"James Harknell and I will be down there soon. See you in a bit, bye." Juliet said as James triumphantly pulled out a sheet of paper with a keen grin on his face. He passed it to Juliet, who looked at him dumbfounded.

"It's building work. So why is it confidential?" James asked rhetorically. "I think we've found a possible reason for Marc Cavendish to have disappeared."


	5. Chapter 4

James hit the brakes suddenly as the SUV reached the end of Juliet's road. Her former police partner, Jack Davies, stood at the blue and white police barrier tape. James and Juliet stepped out of the SUV, slamming the doors behind them. They approached the barrier, and Jack lifted it up for them.

"Juliet, John's been looking for you. He said he's up in your apartment for about the next hour." Jack stated.

"I'll check in before we leave." Juliet replied.

Addressing James, Jack stated "I'm guessing you know most of the rest of it then, Captain?"

James nodded in response, and the three of them strolled over towards Alex, the tall medic. While they were talking, white clad forensic police officers bought out a limp body.

"Is that Cavendish?" Juliet asked James and Alex, who both nodded in swift succession.

"Well, who else would it have been?" Jack asked, while James and Alex both gave Juliet daggers. She looked briefly into James's concerned eyes and Alex's grey unfeeling ones before replying.

"I assumed you'd already got him out when you called me." Juliet replied uneasily. Jack seemed to buy it and Alex whispered 'Good save, newbie' when he brushed past her on the way through to examine the corpse.

The four of them moved over to the deceased. Jack removed the coverings of the corpse and then moved back to the police barrier. Some angry residents had appeared, gesticulating wildly. The neck wound appeared to be healed, as there was a neat line of practically invisible stitches along the length of the middle of Cavendish's neck. Alex had also added more wounds, such as a gaping gash across his chest, as well as a gouge out of the right side of his neck.

"You did a good job, Alex," James complimented the medic. "Those new wounds look convincing."

"The police think that one of the group of guys that Cavendish was working with was responsible as he was shown to have been paid by somebody else. The only big problem is… his name," Alex paused and they could both tell that he was building up to something big. "His name is John Smith, and he hasn't been seen since."

"Can't Laura run a trace on John Smiths in Hampshire in the building profession?" Juliet asked.

"If he was in the pay of somebody else, it's probably a fake name. Also, it's a common name in the building trade alone, it would take hours for us to track him down and he's probably unregistered."

"So, do we reckon Cavendish knew too much and the building work was just a rouse to get him out of the way in a quiet environment?" James asked.

"There's no way those wounds were inflicted by a man, James." Alex replied, finally.

The three of them stood up and left the body, Alex and James moving towards the SUV and Juliet moving towards the door of her apartment.

"We'll see you back at the Hub later," Alex called. "We need to put the pieces together."

James and Alex walked towards the big black four by four, James walking swifter than Alex. As they were walking past the shop windows, something caught Alex's eye, lying in the gutter. He crouched briefly and scooped it up into his hands, as it resembled a knife. He carefully placed it in one of his black leather jacket's pockets. He then jogged to catch up with James at the SUV.

* * *

Robert hammered away at the computer keyboard, the noise reverberating off the walls of the Hub. Laura was up in the lab, examining the rock that they had discovered from the seafront at Bournemouth. With his notepad tucked under his arm and pen in his other hand, the archivist was clearly hard at work. When his search proved fruitless, he threw down his pen and yelled "Bloody police records!"

James and Alex walked back into the Hub from the car park. Alex stormed past him, snarled and said "You wouldn't be a good tea boy and get me a cuppa, would you?"

"Never hurt anyone to say please," Robert replied swiftly.

"It's your job, isn't it?" Alex snarled back.

The technical expert came out of the first floor lab at the sound of the commotion and rolled her eyes at James, who still stood on the stairs to the parking bay. Alex stormed to his workstation, meanwhile Robert stormed up to the gantry, flinging his suit jacket at the wally by the kettle. Laura walked along the gantry and tried to put her small hand on his shoulder, however, he just shrugged it off. Laura ran down the stairs to the Hub floor, and up the shorter staircase to the raised level of the workstations, glowering at Alex. Robert walked down the stairs, slammed a cup of tea on Alex's desk, stormed back up the stairs, grabbed his jacket and walked along the gantry towards the balcony that overlooked the dimly lit interrogation room in the top left had corner of the Hub.

"Thank you!" Alex called after him.

"There was silence for a while, besides the frantic tapping of keyboard keys, until a booted foot made a noise on the gantry behind Robert. He could tell it was James, as he could have recognised that smell anywhere. He smelt strongly of something different, something he didn't know whether it even existed, almost like a mixture of blood and adrenaline. Robert didn't even need to turn around.

"Robert," James said softly, "you know what Alex is like sometimes. You've got to roll with the punches and take it in stride. He'll change." Robert still didn't reply, so James held his hand out. Robert grabbed it uncertainly at first, and then firmly. "Come with me." He commanded.

The two of them ran down the stairs to the main floor of the Hub and then to the elevated stone slab on the floor which acted as a lift into the chapel above. As the lift raised slowly, James yelled "Call us if you need us."

The lift came up where, in the disused chapel there was a font, which lifted away from the floor on a mechanical arm, while the base of it was shifted down and underneath by another arm. When the lift settled in the floor of the Chapel and James and Robert stepped off it, the font snapped back into place quietly. Straight ahead of them was the door and James moved to it, reaching into his pockets for the keys. They unlocked it and the suited man and the man who looked like he had stepped straight out of World War II walked towards Lyndhurst.


	6. Chapter 5

"So, how are you finding your first day in Special Ops?" John asked, pouring coffee into two mugs, spilling some milk on the work surface. He brought it over to Juliet, who was sitting at the table, by the large window, watching the police officers pour over the scene. John put the mug down and looked out the window. "God, Marc was a state, wasn't he? Horrible. Can't imagine who would want to harm him, such a great bloke."

"I know, I was so shocked that it was him they found. Special Ops is going well, people are friendly and I'm finding my way around. How are you enjoying your day off?" Juliet replied.

"Not much of a day off really, when the police pull up and find a body of one of your friends in the apartments opposite. Before Samuel Beckett, my boss, got here, I had to take control of the situation." John stated.

As they watched the scene unfurl outside their window, they could see police officers leaving the scene and barriers being taken away. A few stayed behind, waiting for a squad car that arrived about five minutes later. Out of the back of it stepped Chief Constable Franks, who looked around briefly, tugged on his sandy moustache and walked into the apartment block opposite.

"I heard he might be moving onto better things soon," John announced.

"Well, you're the one who'd know about that, working with his right hand man," Juliet said, almost teasingly.

John paused meaningfully. "He's not getting it. They're both going off up to the Met. I've put my name into the running, but I doubt I'll get it because I'm only 28."

Juliet stood up after finishing her coffee and walked through to the kitchen. "I hope you do get it," she called back. "I think you'd be brilliant." She walked back to the table and kissed him briefly. "I've got to get back to work. You can clear up, can't you?" John nodded as Juliet walked towards the door. "Love you."

* * *

Robert and James had walked along the top of the sandy hill called Parc Pale, on top of which stood the chapel that covered the Excalibur Hub. They had entered Lyndhurst High Street and entered a café about half way up the road.

"What can I get you gentlemen on this fine day?" The elderly woman behind the counter asked James and Robert as soon as the door was shut behind them.

"I'll have an espresso and a brownie please and my friend will have a cup of tea, milk and two sugars please." James replied.

"Takeaway or eat-in?"

"Eat in please."

Robert looked at the captain with a confused look on his face. "Since when have you known how I like my tea?"

"You've been working for Excalibur for four years, I think I've watched you make tea for yourself enough times."

The woman busied herself with her colleagues behind the counter, while Robert stared pointedly out of the large window onto the High Street. James reached into his pocket and pulled out some money to pay. The elderly woman placed the cup of tea, the espresso cup and the brownie on the top of the counter and took the money. Looking through it carefully, she spotted a different looking coin amongst them.

"Excuse me, I think this is a foreign coin. I'm afraid we don't accept it," she stated, holding up an amber octagonal piece of metal. James apologised, took the coin back and passed her a different 20p coin. Then the two men sat down at a table, Robert sliding out of his black jacket, sitting in his maroon shirt and black tie, while James took off his long grey coat. James still held the amber coin in his hand.

"This coin came from my home planet. Kinda like a commemorative memorial coin." James stated, before putting it back in his pocket. He turned his attention to Robert. "So, what's wrong?"

"I just feel like you all take me for granted in the team. I do so much work, but none of it is really seen, everyone sees it as insignificant. Alex doesn't help." Robert replied moodily. "I feel like I'm missing out, that's all. I don't get to go on missions and as a result, I don't get to see half the stuff the rest of you do."

"I'll have a chat with Alex and sort all of this out, don't you worry." James said sympathetically.

Juliet closed the door to her block of apartments and unlocked John's car. All the policemen had departed and there was little evidence of them ever being there, except the odd bit of police ticker tape. Sensing something odd out of the corner of her eye, she turned to see a black coweled figure. She blinked and it disappeared. Putting it down to fatigue, she clambered into the car and drove back to the Hub.

* * *

Laura groaned as she found yet another dead-end on her computer search. Alex didn't even look up, just reached out to pick up his cup of tea, which was relatively lukewarm by this time. He put on his pair of thin-rimmed glasses as he examined the item that he had found outside Juliet's flat. He hadn't shown it to James on the way back to the Hub as he wished to examine it himself. He stood up and walked towards the armoury.

"What have you got there?" Laura asked him as he moved past her workstation.

"It's something I found near where we found Cavendish," Alex replied breezily. "It's like a knife, but not like any I have ever seen. It's got a little switch on the side."

"Does James know you've got that?"

"No, not yet. Once I find out what it is, then I'll tell James."

Alex moved off down the stairs, across the bridge and up to the armoury. Alex left the door open and Laura watched as Alex held the knife at arms' length, flicked the switch and aimed it at the darts board that hung on the wall. Laura saw something fly across the room at great speed and she could heard the dull clunk as the object hit its target. The medic looked shocked as he walked from the room, placing the knife on one of the shelves, which had various weapons scattered on them.

"What's wrong?" Laura asked.

"The knife fires a poisoned dart. It has these hooks on the side which keep it in the skin," Alex croaked. "That's not all. It's got a vial of acid inside it, which shatters on impact. It burns the skin and makes it impossible for the victim to remove the dart. I only managed to take the dart out of the board because I'm a shit shot and the acid vial didn't break. But I'm the one who missed the burn mark on Cavendish's neck. I thought it was only a birth mark!"

"It's a mistake anyone could have made. But now we get James in."

Juliet entered from the car park. "Where is everyone? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Alex had gone even paler than he was normally. She continued, "I found out about Stevens' by the way. They're a criminal organisation used by people of power to kill off those who had found out too much. The police can't do anything about them."

"We need to get James back to the Hub," Laura replied.


	7. Chapter 6

The next day, the Excalibur team found themselves back in the conference room, sat around the ellipse table.

"So, what's new?" James asked, sitting in the black, leather swivel chair at the head of the desk.

"I still can't find John Smith, however, I have found the con organisation's computer system. With any luck, they'll have information on him there," Laura replied, looking almost annoyed at her lack of information.

"I found this," Alex said, putting the knife and the dart on the table, "outside the flat where Cavendish was murdered. The dart contains acid _and _poison."

Alex looked into the Captain's eyes and thought he saw a flash of fear. "Alex, can I see you in my office after the meeting?" Alex nodded in reply. "We need to find Smith. Laura, you're back on locating Smith, Juliet, continue to handle the police side of this investigation, but don't give them anything they can run to the media with. Robert, when Laura finds Smith, you'll be with me." James ordered.

"James, when I came back to the Hub yesterday, there was a coweled figure on my street. Has anybody else seen it?" Juliet asked quizzically. Nobody replied. "Does it mean anything to anyone?"

"Nope, but we'll have to factor it into the investigation. Thanks."

* * *

Alex sat in one of the chairs at James' wooden desk and James sat behind it, hunched over the knife and dart, thoroughly examining them.

"This thing is wrong. This was made back on my home planet and they were used to attack us in the Great War." James stated, not taking his eyes off the dart, a wistful tone coming into his voice.

"That's obviously not our Great War?" Alex asked.

"This Great War destroyed an entire race, a planet and a whole way of life. World War One killed a generation of young men." James paused thoughtfully. "My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old Lie: 'Dulce et Decorum Est Pro patria mori.' It is right and proper to die for your country."

Silence echoed in the long office as Alex looked out the circular window at the other end of it to see Robert and Laura chatting, while Laura tapped away thoughtlessly on one of her three keyboards.

"I fell for that old lie, as Wilfred Owen called it. It was the same lie, just a different principle. Sign up for the army or be shot. Thousands died, but that was nothing compared to war. They all died because of me, but I had to do it. The planet wouldn't have been able to support life after that. I was in charge of a squad of men, the best we had left. I can remember all their faces and I can hear all of their voices. So young, such a waste. They knew we were losing the war and they knew the carnage was inescapable. We went down to the centre of the planet to blow up the core, but there was an ambush and I was the only one to survive. They died screaming for their mothers and I stood there, powerless." James' face became downcast. He looked at the knife and considered all the destruction that it had caused. "To see one of these again is not good. I am taking this down to the Vaults personally. If you or anybody else find any more, you tell me straight away!"

* * *

The cog door which separated the hidden staircase down from the church to the Hub rolled back to reveal Jane, who stepped into the expanse of the Hub, smiling at the occupants and climbing the stairs to her workstation, which was on a concrete island separate from the others. Alex shot her a wink and a smile as he exited James' office.

The tapping of keys ceased as Laura, the technical expert called out, "I've found him!"

James rushed out of his office like it was on fire. He reached Laura's workstation just as Robert reached the bottom of the staircase to the upper gantry and the two men stood looking at Laura's workstation.

"I managed to hack into their system and find their employee records. It was fairly easy really, but I'm worried that I might hit some form of firewall eventually," Laura said. James and Robert stared intently at her computer screen, looking at the picture of a bald, muscled man with a scowl on his face. There were personal details by the side of the photo. "His real name isn't on record obviously, they don't want people hacking in and investigating their past lives."

"What happens if you click the 'track' tab at the top?" Robert asked, while James stood cross armed at the side of the workstation.

"Well, it would allow you to see where the operative was. Presumably they're all chipped. I wanted to show you this as that is more likely to hit some form of security," Laura replied, turning to face her Captain.

"Track him. I'm sure you can get past their systems. You're brilliant, after all." James told her.

Laura blushed at the unexpected praise and a smile radiated across her normally passive features. She brushed her brown hair out of her eyes and pushed her glasses up her narrow nose. About thirty seconds later, she turned to face the two men and stated "He's at Brockenhurst Station, platform two."

Robert and James sprang into action, James running into his office to seize the keys to the SUV off a nail on the wall, while Robert picked up his suit jacket from the back of his workstation chair, sliding it over his broad shoulders. The two of them ran towards the door to the underground car park.

Once they were gone, Jane raised one of her brown eyebrows and asked, "Do you two fancy going out tonight?"

* * *

Robert and James sat in silence during the ride in the SUV to Brockenhurst, watching the blip on the screen in the middle of the dashboard. It showed a red dot which represented their only lead, John Smith.

Laura's voice came over the intercom. _"They've found out about the hacking. I've masked our signal, but it might make your job harder."_

"Do they know what we were accessing?" Robert asked, stroking his stubbly chin.

"_Most probably. I've tried my best to mask it, but I think alarm bells may have already started ringing for them. I'll do the best I can."_ Laura replied, whose concern could be heard through her voice.

James's foot pressed harder on the accelerator, his brown boots almost touching the carpet underneath the pedals. Robert gripped the sides of his black leather seat as James violently turned the corner into the road that led to Brockenhurst station. The level crossing arms were lowering behind them as they drove alongside the railway track and in front of them, they could see the train pulling into the station. James hit the brakes hard and leapt out of the SUV. His coat flailed behind him as he ran up the footbridge, Robert chasing after him. James reached the platform just as the train pulled out of the station.

"Laura, we missed the train. How long until it makes a stop? Is Smith definitely still on it?" Robert asked, touching his earpiece.

"_He's definitely on it. It's a fast train across country and it arrives at Bournemouth at 12, so quarter of an hour."_

James began to sprint back to the SUV and he brushed past Robert in the process.

"Do you reckon we can get to Bournemouth in fifteen minutes?" Robert called after him.

"We're gonna have to." James called back over his shoulder. Robert sighed, rolled his eyes and followed James back to the car.

"I'm just going down to the Vaults to take a stock check. I won't be long." Alex announced with a wry smile on his thin face. He walked down the concrete steps to the main floor of the Hub, over the stream of water that divided the Hub in two and down into the Vaults.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Laura asked, "So where are we going to go tonight?"

"Well, there are plenty of pubs around. How about going to Beaulieu or Brockenhurst?" Jane replied. The other two nodded in reply and Jane brushed her medium length brown hair out of her face and returned to her high magnification microscope she had fetched from the laboratory earlier.

"Have you figured out what that thing is yet?" Juliet asked.

"It's probably a fragment of a destroyed planet, but it's a bit unusual because it reacts with salt water." Jane replied. "It forms a kind of weak acid which eventually eroded the support to the pier, causing it to break."

Laura turned back to one of her monitors which showed the CCTV image of the ticket office at Bournemouth train station. Two bald men clad in suits had just walked into the ticket office, one of whom turned to face the camera, meanwhile the other was in conversation with the man behind the ticket office window. Laura gasped and went to touch her earpiece, but then she saw James and Robert stroll into the ticket office.

* * *

James and Robert approached the ticket barrier at Bournemouth station. At the ticket barrier were two female officers standing guard and James simply whispered 'Excalibur' into one of their ears who opened the barrier. James winked at her and the two of them walked through the barrier. Robert was shaking his head in disbelief at the Captain, who shrugged and mouthed 'What?'

"Honestly, can't take you anywhere." Robert stated.

"What? I was only making new friends!"

Robert was immediately to business as he noticed the two hit men they had seen in the ticket office. "Very smartly dressed for hit men."

"Trust you to make judgements on somebody by the cut of their suit," James retorted to the suited man, who was running a hand through his spiky hair.

The air was filled with a slow whining sound as the train pulled into the covered station, coming out of the drizzling rain. The crimson blur slowed down, the noise changing to whirring as the train began to stop. James and the two hit men found themselves standing next to each other, Robert standing a way off behind them. One of them gave James a scowl, to which James responded with a small smile in the corner of his mouth. When the train stopped, the quartet got on at the same door and entered the same carriage. It was empty except for a well built man who jumped in fear when he saw the two suited men. They sat at the far end of the carriage, while James and Robert sat at the other end, sitting on the aisle seats on either side of the passageway. Robert put one hand towards his gun holster under his arm, however, James held up his more bulky hand in a halting gesture, cautiously watching the two men at the other end of the carriage. One of them was scratching his broad forehead and the other was pretending to doze.

An announcement came over the train's speaker: _"Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for the delay here at Bournemouth, we are currently waiting for the other half of the train to connect."_

Robert took this as the cue to leap into action. James' hand grasped desperately at the hem of Robert's open jacket and sighed as he raised his tall frame off his seat. Robert reached the man first and pointed his Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 4.3 at the thick, bald head of John Smith. John Smith stretched out a broad and muscled arm and grabbed Robert's right arm. A ripple of pain crumped its way through Robert's face as Smith began to twist it. Robert thudded to the floor, blood streaming from his nose and his gun landed on the floor next to him. James rushed across to tend to him and at this point, the two hit men moved to take Smith, dropping a smoke grenade and grabbing the burly man between the two of them. They frogmarched him off the train as Robert and James were still coughing and spluttering.


	8. Chapter 7

James and Robert waiting for the smoke to clear, James holding Robert's nose in a white handkerchief and then, once it had cleared, they both ran to the train door, just before the doors slammed closed, James' coat nearly getting stuck in the door. When Robert's blood flow stemmed, leaving a crimson stain on James' handkerchief, they rushed through the ticket office and out towards the multi-storey ASDA car park opposite. They could see no sign of the two hit-men and their captive. James flicked a long strand of hair out of his eyes and pressed his ear piece.

"We've lost them."

"_Well, don't worry; I've got them and am tracking them on CCTV and speed cameras as we speak. They're heading back to Southampton, probably back to base. I think that you should do the same as I feel that we need to come up with a plan of attack and implement it immediately,_" Jane's voice said into James and Robert's ears.

Robert looked at James and saw that he did not look keen on the idea. "We're coming back to the Hub now," replied Robert quietly.

* * *

The silence reverberated around the conference room as everyone stared long and hard at James' thoughtful face, the usual glint missing from his eyes. "They're government backed though." James objected.

"The government back us as well though," Jane pointed out. "We've got to do something about them and quickly, James."

"They'll kill him if they need to, James. They showed that with Marc. We've got to get out there and bring them in. If they don't want to be brought in then we've got no other choice. They're a risk to the human race." Juliet added.

"The vehicle is parked at Southampton Docks outside a warehouse and I have a scan of the building. There are 11 people inside. I think they should be fairly easy to take out." Laura stated brushing her long blonde hair out of her eyes.

"They stopped us from getting Smith which suggests that they're going to kill him. In my opinion, we need to storm the place." Alex stated, stroking his thin brown beard with one hand and pushing his unframed spectacles up his nose with the other as he looked long and hard into James' eyes. "If we don't do it now, someone else will be next."

"I set up Excalibur to save the human race from alien threats, not to shoot anyone who gets in our way!" James snarled at the other five. Robert and Jane looked particularly taken aback. "If we storm the place, one of us might not survive and I couldn't live with myself for that."

"It's one of us against all of them. I think it's a worthwhile sacrifice," Robert opined. "We'd be saving a small child and his mother. Make no mistake, Sarah Cavendish and her baby will be next on their list and I don't want their blood on my hands."

"The SUV's already equipped; I sorted it all out after you got back. I stocked it up on medical kits." Alex stated.

"What if there are aliens we haven't met before? We don't want to kill them, we'll want to examine them, find out if they're a threat!" James protested rationally.

"We'll pack stun guns for the aliens. But we cannot sit around here discussing it, we need to do it." Jane responded.

James looked around at the united front of his team. He paused thoughtfully, stroking his chin and then finally nodded.

* * *

The SUV remained eerily quiet on the way to Southampton Docks. James was concentrating on driving, but he had his jaw clenched and it was clear he was annoyed about being over ruled. Alex and Jane sat in the two passenger seats beside him, checking details on their screens, while Laura, Juliet and Robert were in the back, Robert checking all the guns were loaded and passing them back to their respective owners. No one was smiling.

"It's just here on the right," Laura said, breaking the awkward silence. James nodded dutifully and without a sound stopped about two warehouses away from the car that belonged to the hit men was parked.

"Juliet and Laura, you're with me. Alex and Robert, check for alarms. Jane, go with them. Robert, Jane and Alex enter from the back of the warehouse; we'll take them from the front. Move out, keep your earpieces open and watch each other's backs!" James ordered and they all stepped out of the SUV, all clad in black, except for James who was wearing his long coat, blue shirt, grey trousers and boots.

They walked towards the warehouse in silence, James at their head. When they reached it, Robert, Alex and Jane peeled off to the side of the warehouse, while James, Laura and Juliet stood at the front of the warehouse in silence until James stated "You've done something like this before, haven't you?"

"How did you know that?" Juliet replied. Without giving him a chance to reply, she said "Yeah, I was in the SWAT team a couple of time, on drug raids."

Meanwhile, round the back of the building, Alex and Jane were looking for the alarm override. Jane scanned the building on her PDA and found that it was on the far side of the building. Robert ran round there with them and they frantically keyed in digits, until the alarm system was deactivated.

"James, the alarms are down," Robert stated, touching his earpiece.

"_Right, okay. Enter on my signal, and look out for one another!"_

Back at the front of the building, Laura and Juliet prepared to pull back the big heavy door to the front of the warehouse to enter. James stood back, pulling his Smith and Wesson out of his brown leather holster and as he did so, he touched his earpiece, stating "Good luck everybody," and signalled for the door to be pulled open. Juliet and Laura pulled it open and James barked "Go!"

James stepped over the threshold first. Staring through the dusty darkness, he rummaged into his pockets and pulled out a torch. They could see the back doors of the warehouse opening and the shadowy figures of Alex, Robert and Jane entering through it. As soon as James turned the light on, something came at them.

It seized at the light, knocking over Juliet and Laura in its quest to get to James and the light. James stepped in, punched it across its slobbering head and whilst it was still reeling from that, he pulled out his stun gun. The creature was suddenly stationary and hit the ground with a dull and sickening thud. As soon as the creature hit the floor, two bald men came lunging out of the darkness at them. Robert and Jane, however, were quicker than them and fired two silenced rounds at them, causing them to collapse as quickly as they had appeared.

"I'm noticing a pattern of male baldness here. Is that some kind of requirement? Three A Levels, 10 GCSEs, oh and male pattern baldness runs in my family?" James asked jokingly.

James shone his torch around the warehouse and spotted a metal flight of stairs to the right hand side of them. James pointed at Jane and the stairs and Jane led her team of three up. A few minutes later, they could hear the silenced gunshots and louder gunshots from the team of assassins. This caused James to quickly sweet the lower floor of the warehouse and then run up the stairs, where Robert, Alex and Jane were trying to maintain a defensive position. Juliet and Laura followed him up the stairs. Robert had blood seeping from a shoulder wound and the arrival of the rest of the team allowed Alex to take him back to the SUV to treat it. The four of the team that remained on the stairs exchanged gunfire with the four bald headed assassins who stood on the landing. Two of their comrades lay dead on the floor, blood oozing from fatal wounds. James looked briefly at a PDA that showed only one additional life sign in the building. James looked at the closed door at the end of the corridor, which was where he figured they would be.

James marched himself down the corridor, his long, grey coat flailing behind him. Gunshots whistled past him and a couple of bullets hit him, however, due to an accident long ago, James healed almost instantly. He fired at one of the assassins and found himself at the door. He opened it and there was a cloaked figure in black and a man in a suit conversing. Behind James, the rest of the team advanced behind him, into the door way. The suited man reached for a shotgun by the window, while the cloaked man jumped through the window and started running away. Alex, who had returned with Robert, shot the suited man before he could fire.


	9. Brief Encounter

**A/N: This is a filler chapter between Excalibur and Excalibur on the Edge. The Alternative Universe in which Excalibur is based, runs parallel to the Whoniverse. This story takes place in between Doctor Who stories The Waters of Mars and The End of Time.**

**Doctor Who belongs to the BBC, Tenth Doctor belongs to Russell T Davies, as does the Tenth Doctor, whose appearance owes a lot to David Tennant.**

**Read, review, and spot the Doctor Who references.  
**

There was a cacophony of noise as the blue box materialised inside the Excalibur Hub. James had been slumped at the conference table, dozing, but now, he sat bolt upright in his chair, and as he heard the door swing open. James rushed to the entrance to the conference room and looked down at the Hub floor to see a tall, skinny man, wearing a pinstripe suit with a pair of trainers, scratching the back of his head, which was covered in scruffy brown hair, and emitting a low whistle between pursed lips.

"Doctor!" James yelled. The man turned, bewildered look on his face.

"What?" The Doctor replied, questioning the TARDIS standing behind him.

"What a surprise to see you." James said, clambering down the steps, taking them at a slow canter.

"I was thinking exactly the same thing," The Doctor replied, lowering the arm from his head to extend it for a shake. James took it warmly and smiled broadly. "Must have fallen through an anomaly between universes. She does that sometimes, I'm afraid. Locked onto some vaguely familiar form," He said, more to himself than to James. "When was I last here?" he asked, turning to address him finally.

"2002, December, I think." James replied

"Hmm. Well it's nice to see you James, after 7 long years. Well, it's been longer for me. Been wandering a lot. Well, running really."

"Remember the Ghost-Gorgons?" James asked, putting his hands into the pockets of his grey trousers.

"Course I do. Taking over the World so that the entire population of struggling, misplaced souls could live again. If you call that living. Anyway," The Doctor said, "things have clearly changed since then." His voice brightened up. "You've got a team! Finally got bored of doing this thing on your own?"

"Yeah, having a team is far more of an adventure. Teaching them new things, seeing the wonder on their faces." The Doctor began to look wistfully into the distance. "Are you alone?" James asked, looking at the TARDIS.

"They all left me. They've got some one else," The Doctor replied, a sense of melancholy seeping through in his voice. "Anyway, any problems with the Ghost Gorgons since?"

"Nope, none so far. But we do have a tricky specimen in the Vaults, and I have no idea as to what they are." James replied. "Come down and see."

The two left the TARDIS in the centre of the main floor and walked down the flight of stairs next to the door to the car park, which led down to the Vaults, the Doctor following James, as the latter strolled leisurely down the stairs.

The two arrived down in the Vaults about six seconds apart, and James then practically frogmarched The Doctor to one of the heavy doors, sliding a slot across the door to check on the single inmate, before gesturing for the Doctor to look at the creature. A second passed as the Doctor stared at the high sloping foreheads, sunken eyes, and freakishly sharp teeth.

"What you've got here, James is a Moontor. Space scavengers. No one knows where they come from."

"Well, we've got loads of them in the sewers now."

"Oh. Well. They're not the worst thing to have in the sewers."

The two men went back up to the main floor of the Hub, and The Doctor moved to go back into his TARDIS.

"Are you going then?" James asked, as the Doctor had pushed the blue door open.

"I've got to look at this anomaly I fell through." He said, turning round as he pulled his thick rimmed glasses on. "See how I can get back."

"Oh. I've got a pretty powerful computer here if you want to use it."

"Where?" The Doctor asked, turning around in the doorway.

"Up in my office," James replied, pointing towards it.

The Doctor ran up the concrete steps to the platform, taking them two at a time and then sprinting across the work area, flinging the door to James' office open, almost shattering the glass in it. The computer whirred into life and, with a couple of swift keystrokes, had the anomaly up on screen. James stood at the door, watching the Doctor at work. The Doctor ran back through the door, gesturing for James to run after him, back into the TARDIS, and James followed him. The interior did not impress James, as he had met The Doctor before.

"Hold this down," The Doctor commanded, pointing at a lever. "It'll try and fight back, but you're a strong man." The Doctor then took control of the TARDIS, and James could feel it dematerializing.

"Something awful is going to happen to you," James said, straining against the lever.

"I know," The Doctor replied absent mindedly. "Something new is coming your way."

There was a pause before James broke the silence, "Doctor! Did you find her?"

"I did," The Doctor replied. "But I let her go. It was the right thing to do." He gave James a grim smile.

Silence returned until: "We're at the anomaly." The Doctor said. "Let the lever back up." James eased the lever up to its original position.

The Doctor moved away from his console. He slowly moved to the sofa, picking up a grey device with a yellow button. He chucked it to James.

"You can't come through, I'm afraid. Your team need you, Captain." The Doctor stated, then gave him a one fingered salute, to which James snapped to attention at, and gave him a full salute.

"Press the button. You'll go back to your team." The Doctor said, mournfully looking at James.

"Good luck, Doctor." James stated

"You too, James." The Doctor replied just before James pressed the button, and left the TARDIS and The Doctor, his Doctor behind. He reappeared in the centre of the Hub, just as Laura came through the cog door.

"Good morning, James"

"Morning. What are you doing here, at…," James looked at his watch, "3 AM?"

"I had some work to catch up with. Something wrong?"

"Nothing at all." James said wistfully, staring up at the imposing ceiling.


	10. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 1

**Welcome back! Here is the first chapter of the second Excalibur story. This carries on straight after James' encounter with the 10th Doctor, and at the moment, looks to be longer than the first story. If updates are irregular, I'm sorry, but I've got exams for the next two months, and I'm also working with incandescent daisy on a story at the moment. Anyway, Read and Review please.**

It was early morning in the Excalibur Hub. No one was in apart from Laura, who had been up all night working; and James who lived there anyway, and he was asleep.

Suddenly, a siren blared out from all the computer terminals, as the walls began to shake. The Hub began to go into lockdown and Laura was suddenly aware of movement in James' office.

"I don't like having my sleep disturbed, What the hell is going on?" James yelled over the siren's as the doors slammed and bolted, from his office door. Laura turned to look at him, wearing breeches, a white shirt and trousers. Moving closer to him, she replied.

"The Hub's gone into lockdown, I have no idea what triggered it. Trying to get it out now," She said, with a reassuring smile, moving back over to her workstation. "From what I'm getting from the internet and the readouts here at the Hub, this would appear to be a small, localised earthquake. It could of course, be something completely different, and know our luck it's probably not that usual."

James launched himself across the raised platform and up the stairs to the upper metal gantry above Laura's head, and gestured for her to follow. They walked over the balcony to the interrogation room, and further along, turning when they reached the Lab into the emergency control room, which was covered in wall to wall computer terminals.

James stood in the middle of the room and barked, "Abort lockdown procedure, command protocol zero nine, ident, Harknell, James. Excalibur officer zero zero one."

"Access granted," the computer replied. "Lockdown procedure programme operational."

Laura and James marched over to the computer terminals and began typing furiously. After about ten minutes, James stood back, a look of worry crossing his handsome face. He ran out of the panic room, and Laura could hear his booted feet sprit across the gantry and down the concrete steps towards his office. Laura continued the process of taking the Hub out of lockdown until she could feel James standing behind her.

"Every seismologist in the country is asleep! But you've got an A Level in Geography. You must know about earthquakes," he stated.

"Of course. Earthquakes naturally occur along plate boundaries, however, interpolate boundaries can form when plates fracture. However, there is only a shallow fault in the Eurasian Plate in the UK in Hampshire, and I swear the reading said the focus was practically on top of us, when the boundary is miles from here," Laura practically recited until she reached the last bit.

"So, it's not an earthquake due to the lack of a fault line?" James asked, his mouth upturned into a mocking smile.

"I don't think so. It's also not affected anything above ground-just caused displacement down here." Laura replied. Her eye twinkled as she playfully mocked James in return "I only got a C at A level though- you need an expert."

"It's four o clock! All the experts are asleep...," James stated, only to be interrupted by a splash as an object fell into the pond of water supply that came down from the font to form a pool of water in the Hub below.

James walked through into the lab and stood at the opened window through which he called "Rob? Alex? Juliet? Jane?" His voice echoed through the concrete expanse of the Hub. Then he spotted it.

There was a brown leather object, not totally unlike a wallet, floating in the water. James ran through the Lab and out to the gantry above, ran down the concrete and onto the bridge that crossed the stream to the lift, which James had revamped recently, with a new piece of alien kit they had found on a scavenge, to place the lift on a spherical slab up in the chapel, which allowed the invisible lift to be surrounded by the water from the font. The alien device shielded the lift from raining water, and was invisible. It also parted the water in the shape of a door when the lift reached the top and the bottom of the Hub.

James fished the wallet out of the water, and opened it carefully. He could see that it was empty. However, a scrap of paper fell out of it, wiping the look of relief off James' face as he read it. Concern replaced it instead, a frown invading his brow, and the upturned corners of his small mouth.

'Harknell,

Here's looking at you, kid.

Z.' it read.

James turned over the piece of paper and a picture faded into view of two men beaming broadly in some form of bar. One of the men was James, his face distorted as he was clearly heartily laughing, but the other man was nothing to him. A blank face, with a smile breaking through.


	11. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Juliet's phone went off at 4 in the morning, she and John both knew it was bad news. When she wearily lifted her tousled head from the pillow to read the words 'HUB NOW!' on her mobile phone screen, she knew it was even worse. Groaning quietly, Juliet pulled herself out of her warm bed and into the coldness of her flat. She walked out into the open area that made up the living room-dining room. She moved over slowly to the picture window to check on the weather. It was now mid-September and the cold days of August, when she had started to work for Excalibur, had transitioned into cold bleak autumn. Rain now lashed the window. Juliet stepped back and got changed in the warmth of her own bed.

Juliet entered the Hub and walked casually over to her workstation, where Robert was already standing with a perfectly laundered suit and a steaming cup of coffee. Alex, Laura and Jane were working hard at their workstations.

"Oh thanks Rob," Juliet said, as Robert turned and entered James's office, and then James walked off, striding across the platform.

"Nice of you to turn up!" James stated. "Looks like we've got a bit of a crisis going on here, what with the earthquake. We're working over time to cover this up."

"What earthquake?" Juliet asked.

"It was localised around Beaulieu and Lyndhurst after all, James." Laura chimed in.

"Right, Robert and I are going to see if it had much of an impact on Lyndhurst. Laura, get on turning off that beacon. Juliet, you're here just in case we hear anything from the Police. Alex, go and give the Moontors a sedative injection, they went crazy when that earthquake hit. Jane, you're in charge." James stated, pulling on his greatcoat and heading for the underground car park. Robert straightened his tie and followed him. Alex moved swiftly to the other side of the Hub over to the staircase down into the Vaults.

When they were certain that James and Robert had left, then Juliet moved over to Laura's workstation. "So what's this beacon then?"

"That beacon has been attracting extra-terrestrial material heading for the United Kingdom to us down here in Hampshire and Dorset. So if James is telling us to shut it down, it means whatever that earthquake was is serious." Laura replied.

"Why don't you ask him then?" Juliet asked.

Jane laughed, and then said, "James won't tell us anything until he's absolutely sure. And he hardly tells us anything, anyway."

Juliet ran a hand through her black hair. "But surely, that beacon must have been brought into being by the government, don't they have a say in us turning it off?"

"That's the thing, if it's alien, a) it's ours, b) the government don't seem to mind. No one's really going to notice if we switch it off anyway, half this stuff seems to just find us, and anyway, there are always nut case conspiracy theorists."

Laura started typing on one of her four keyboards, and put on a pair of black rimmed glasses and stared intently at the left hand central screen. "Right, that's shut down initiated. It'll take three hours."

By the time the beacon had gone through its final stages of shut down, James and Robert had returned, and Robert had rustled up some cold pizza from the day before for food, along with a cup of coffee to keep them all going. About half an hour later, Juliet's phone rang, and it was Juliet's ex-partner when she was in the Police, Jack.

"Hi Juliet, I've got another spooky do for you," his voice crackled over the phone line. "We've got a situation down in Brockenhurst, down on Police Station Road. Well, it's something different, that's for sure."

"OK Jack, I'm on my way. I'll have to pass it by James first though. OK, I'll see you soon. Bye." She replied, hanging up and heading for James's office. Robert opened the door for her as he was about to come out at the same time she wanted to go in. James looked up from a bit of paperwork he was doing, and smiled.

"Hey James, I've just been told about something unusual happening down in Brockenhurst. Is it OK if I go?"

"Yeah, sure, we don't really need you here at the moment. Take Laura and Alex with you just in case. Actually, I might need Laura. Take Robert and Laura."

"Why not Jane?"

"Because she's still recovering and she's also getting some stuff from down in the Vaults for me." James pulled open a drawer in his wooden desk, and pulled out a silver hexagonal device, which had diamond crochets across the surface. "Take this with you."

"What is it?"

"It's a … well, I haven't given it a cool name yet. We don't know what it is. It would appear to be a magic…thing. But it seems to be able to unlock things that should be quantum sealed. And it can hack computer systems."

"Pretty handy device then," Juliet said, holding her hand out to take it. James dropped it into her hand, and the cool metallic device was smooth in her hand. James smiled as Juliet turned around and left his office, still staring at the silver device.

"So what exactly is supposed to be happening on Police Station Road in Brockenhurst?" Alex asked from the back seat of the SUV. Juliet was sitting directly in front of him and Robert was driving.

"I don't know. Jack wasn't more specific than 'a spooky do' when I spoke to him." Juliet replied.

"Typical police. Either too much information or none at all." Alex replied flippantly.

The rest of the journey transpired in silence, with Juliet looking out of the passenger window, while Robert's eyes were firmly focused on the road ahead. As they turned from Swan Street into Police Station Road, a narrow street, that the SUV entirely took up, to see a massive police cordon around two red bricked, semi detached houses. As the SUV pulled up, the net curtain in the downstairs window of the left hand house's window twitched and someone stared at them, before letting the net curtain fall back into place. Juliet, Robert and Alex stepped out into the heavy rain, and approached Jack.

"So what's going on?" Juliet asked.

"Well, the husband and wife in Number 4 called us in, Mr and Mrs Johnston. Number 6 is rented out, and they barely saw the guy who moved in, he hardly seemed to go out, and nobody ever came to see him. The other thing is that he never seemed to draw the curtains at night. Now, last night, they heard a loud thud, and this morning, the curtains are drawn. They had a spare key to number 6, and so Mrs Johnston rushed next door to check he was OK. The key fit perfectly, except the door wouldn't unlock. So she tried the back door, and the same thing happened. So they called us in, and I called you in." Jack explained.

"Oh right. Can we have ten minutes alone in there?" Alex asked.

"So long as you don't take anything that might be important," Jack replied.

The trio walked under the blue and white Police tape and walked towards the front door. Upon reaching it, Juliet pulled out the device James had given her. Something in the door clicked, and it swung open. They entered the house, and found themselves in a narrow hall way. Robert pulled his Excalibur PDA out of his pocket and, pulling the long black stylus out of the top, he tapped a couple of buttons on the touch screen, and set up a scan.

"No life readings." He told the other two.

They approached the first door on the right. Juliet reached out for the spherical door handle, and turned it. Behind it was a stair case to the second floor.

"I'll go upstairs," Juliet stated. "You two check out downstairs. Stay in touch."

Robert and Alex nodded, and carried on along the hallway. Juliet walked up the flight of stairs, only to find a man standing at the top of the staircase. Holding a gun, he said "Don't scream."

"Who are you?" The man asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," Juliet replied, pulling her own gun out of her holster and pointing the gun at him.

"But…I asked you first," He said.

"I'm Juliet Harvey, I'm with Excalibur. I'm here to find the man who was renting this house." She replied hurriedly.

"Hmm, Excalibur, that rings a bell. Why does that ring a bell?" The man queried himself.

"Your name!" Juliet yelled.

"Captain Thomas Sky. Oooh, I've got it. Excalibur, your boss is Captain James Harknell, right?"

"You're currently hindering my operation. Please let me get up there and search for this man."

"Oh, he's dead. I didn't kill him, because I know that what your brain is thinking. God, humans are slow."

There came thundering footsteps as Alex and Robert came haring along the hallway, and stood at the bottom of the staircase.

"Juliet? We heard you yell. Are you alright?" Alex asked.

"We found the body, and we photographed it and sent it to Laura, who has cross referenced it. Guess who it was? John Smith." Robert added.

"I'm fine. Wow, we finally found him. But he's in no state to talk."

"Is there someone up there with you?" Robert asked.

"Captain Thomas Sky." The man replied. "I know your boss. Oh, that reminds me. Earlier, I found this by the dead body." He said, pulling a white envelope out of his pocket. "It's addressed to your boss."


	12. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 3

"We'd better go," Juliet said. She turned to the new arrival, "How are you going to get out? The police are outside, and they know that only the three of us came in."

"How do you think I got in?" Captain Thomas Sky replied, raising a wrist, revealing a leather wrist strap into the dim light, similar to James's. "Simple teleport system. I'll teleport around the corner and you can then pick me up from there."

Robert nodded, and the three turned and walked towards the door onto the buzzing street. Juliet turned back just in time to see the shadow of the man disappear with a small blip.

Juliet walked out of the house, signaling to Jack that the police could enter. Alex and Robert had already reached the SUV, Robert in the driver's seat, and Alex in the back, and Juliet hopped into the passenger seat beside Robert. Robert slowly reversed out of the small side street into Swan Street, and slowly drove up the hill.

Suddenly, a man appeared on the pavement to the left, coming from nowhere. The pedestrians standing by the pub didn't seem to notice the sudden appearance of the man, and seemed content to continue minding their own business. Robert, however, swiftly braked and tooted the horn of the big black car. Captain Thomas Sky looked up, noticed the SUV, and ran across the pavement and opened the rear left door to sit beside Alex.

Now seen in full light, Captain Thomas Sky had dark brown hair, which was beginning to grey at the side of his head. He had a very chiseled face, with highly defined cheekbones, and was wearing Regency fashion – a dark brown jacket, with a brown checked waistcoat, with a high white collared shirt with a necktie, and light coloured trousers and knee high brown boots.

"How on Earth did you go unnoticed?" Alex asked.

"The human race only sees what it wants to. They don't want to believe people can appear in regency clothing from thin air." Captain Thomas Sky replied. Looking down at his clothes, he added, "But then again, can you please take me to a clothes shop?"

* * *

Back at the Hub, Jane and Laura were hard at work on the computers at their desks, while James was staring into thin air, with his boots on his desk, and thinking hard.

Suddenly, all the computers in the Hub switched themselves off, and all Jane and Laura's work was lost. Jane ran into James's office.

"The entire Excalibur computer has gone down, as has the comms system, so I can't contact the SUV," Jane stated. "We're walking in the dark at the moment."

James blearily looked up from his padded chair at her, with a confused look on his face.

"How long since you last slept, James?" Jane asked, arriving at the office door.

"72 hours," James replied. "Look guys, I have no idea what's going on."

Almost instantly afterwards, James' wrist strap bleeped, and the three of them stared at it with a mixture of confusion and dread.

"Has it ever done that before?" Laura asked.

"Not for a very long time," James replied, before unfastening the metal catch, and pressing a green button.

"James! It's Thomas!" The voice stated.

"Thomas! What on Earth are you doing here?"

"Pursuing a Rift Lord through your patch, I'm afraid. I'm with your team in the SUV, but they've lost all contact with you, and the computer systems have failed. It's because of a Rift. This Rift Lord I'm chasing has installed a Rift in Time and Space running right by you, I'm afraid."

"Ah OK, I know what to do now," James replied. "See you here soon."

Above them, in the disused Church that rested above the Excalibur Hub, a man in a hooded top and jeans sniffed around the dusty and cobwebbed pews on his hands and knees, unwatched by the dead eyes in the CCTV cameras. Unaware, James, Laura and Jane worked on below him.

"Laura, I need you to override the Excalibur computer system, we need to modify it. Jane, can you try and find out as much as you can about this for me?" James asked, passing Jane the folded picture. "I'm going down to the Vaults, I'll be back in a minute."

James then ran across the floor of the Hub, barging into the door which lead to the staircase down into the Vaults.

"So what's a Rift in Time and Space?" Laura asked Jane, after they had left James's office, and had turned on one of her mounted computers.

"Temporal anomalies in the fabric of realities. It means that anything can be carried from one area of space and time to another. It also shows that James was right to shut down the beacon, we don't know how much, or what, is going to come through the Rift. I'm not sure how happy the government is going to be, but until we can assess the risk this is the best course of action."

"Oh. What's that piece of paper James gave you?" Laura asked, holding her hands out for it.

"I don't know yet. I've got some technology that doesn't rely on the network that might tell me more about it." Jane replied, handing over the folded scrap of paper.

Laura unfolded it from quarters to halves, revealing the message that James had seen earlier. Then, unfolding the piece of paper, she revealed the photograph. Jane looked at it quizzically, a frown crinkling her normally clear brow.

"Who do you reckon that is?" Jane asked.

"I'm guessing it's the mysterious Z. It suggests that he doesn't want to give too much away." Laura replied, putting on her thick rimmed glasses, looking closer at the note, "Nothing's been erased, so he only ever put the letter." She said passing it back to Jane, just as James came bursting out of the door, carrying a small USB device in his left hand.

"How's the system reset going, Laura?" James asked. Jane walked towards her work area on the isolated podium by the big cog door that lead up to the redundant belfry up in the Church above, and also had an independent office for Robert's archive work.

"Just starting it now," Laura replied, tapping away earnestly at her keyboard. James approached the computer with USB device, which looked like a normal portable device. Laura inserted it into one of her computers, and suddenly, after a program installation, the Excalibur system was up and running, and all the computers in the Hub whirred back into life.

"Where did you get that?" Laura asked.

"My old planet had a Rift, so we had to find a way to cope," James stated, "That was the only thing I took from my planet when I left, because I knew I'd find a use for it."

Laura looked at her computer screens, showing the continuous twirling of strands of DNA. Meanwhile, the door leading to the car park burst open, and Robert, Juliet, Alex and Captain Thomas Sky walked through.

"Thomas!" James exclaimed, walking towards the group. "So good to see you!"

"You too." Thomas replied, as the two embraced.

"Welcome to Excalibur. You've met Juliet Harvey, Robert Jones and Alex Brown," the three nodded at him, and returned to their desks, "and these two," James said, signaling Laura and Jane, "are Laura Prince and Jane Asker, my second in command."

"I'm very pleased to meet you all," Captain Thomas Sky replied. "If you'll excuse me, I need to speak to your boss."

* * *

James settled down behind his desk, while Tom settled down in the chair opposite him, looking around at the brick walls and the alien artifacts scattered around the desk and on tables around the room.

"Done quite nicely for yourself, haven't you James?" Thomas stated. "And before you apologize for destroying our planet, you don't need to. I knew what you were going to do. It was the only thing to stop that god-awful war."

"I thought you were dead though, I wasn't aware you got off the planet."

"I got off just before you left on your mission; I was chasing the Rift Lord Zakala, who had spun a web of deception around our High Council, which lead to the War. That's why I'm here, I feel I owe it to our people's memories to catch him and have him brought to justice."

"And you want my help, I'm presuming?" James asked, putting his hands together to touch his chin as he leaned across his desk.

"Well, I'm figuring local knowledge might help out."

Suddenly, Laura burst into the office. "Sorry, guys, but we've got a situation."

James and Thomas raced after Laura as she ran across the work area, to her work station, and the screens on her computer showed the CCTV images of the Church above them, which showed a man on his hands and knees, sniffing around.

"How long has he been there?" James asked.

"Since about 4 o clock this morning," Laura replied grimly.


	13. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Everyone in the Hub watched James. After a couple of minutes of staring at the CCTV images, he stated "Right, we've got code amber. Everyone grab your weapons, and we'll head up there via the Lift – the Perception filter up there will help." The team ran to the armory and grabbed their modified Colts. James turned to his friend, and asked, "Do you want a gun?"

"I've got one thanks. James, that's Zakala – The Rift Lord. He's after you." Tom stated, taking a letter out of one his jacket's pockets."

James opened and scanned the letter, and looked up, smiling, "All the more reason to give him a warm welcome."

The rest of the team exited the armory, checking their ammunition and putting their guns in their under-arm holsters. James swiftly checked the presence of his Webley in his brown leather holster, while Alex walked slowly across the Hub.

"James, how much cover is there up there? I've hardly been up in the Chapel." Alex asked

"The pews provide enough cover for now, they're still up there." James replied, then addressed the team as a whole. "Our strategy will be simple. We will take the lift up into the Church, find some cover, and try and flush him out."

"Be careful guys, Zakala is crafty and he doesn't tend to play by any 'rules'. You're really going to have to work hard to get him." Thomas added, checking his own holster on the outside of his thigh.

The team walked onto the platform that went up through the layers of the Hub up to the Chapel above the Hub, James and Thomas at the front of the platform. James moved his left arm up, and flipped the cover for his wrist device, and touched a button. The water 'door' closed around them, and the slab moved up through the layers of the Hub. As they moved upwards, the actual slab above the fountain moved downwards and to the side, for the paving slab they were standing on to move into its place.

As the slab moved back into place, they could see Zakala sniffing around on the floor, taking ages over every inch of stone floor he could. He was so distracted, that the members of Excalibur were able to get off the platform and find a form of cover, behind pews or pillars in the Chapel, which were thick, cold and stony.

James brought himself out of cover, holding his Webley and pointed it squarely at Zakala's head. "Stay perfectly still. Right, now stand up slowly, and throw any weapons this way."

The figure stood up, and James stared at him, wearing a bright red t shirt, a casual jacket, green trousers and a pair of Converse trainers, and a small face, with a nose that looked like it had previously been broken, and a mess of blond hair on top of it. He threw a gun and a laser tool towards James.

"Scan him! Scan him!" Thomas implored Laura, who shook her head. "For the love of God! Scan him!

Laura stood up and took the PDA out of her black leather jacket, and initiated the scan. As she did this, Zakala reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a small capsule. As James refocused his gun on him, he dropped it, and smoke concealed him from view.

"Hold your fire!" James yelled. They could hear footsteps running away from them, towards the far edge of church, as well as the team mates coughing.

Alex was on the edge of the smoke screen and edged down a row of pews near the door to the Chapel, while keeping low. As Zakala ran towards his pew, the former rugby playing medic, lunged at his legs and brought him scudding down to the ground. As the smoke began to clear Alex called "I've got him, I've got him!"

Alex grabbed him round the stomach, as Thomas came running out of the smoke, his boots clattering on the flag stone floor. Zakala recovered and elbowed Alex in the stomach, forcing the arms to retract, then Zakala threw Alex across the floor, and he scudded into a row of pews. Thomas aimed his gun at Zakala's head, and moved closer and closer. James, Juliet and Robert ran out of the diminishing smoke, and watched from a distance, with their guns at the ready. Thomas grew ever closer to Zakala until Zakala darted around him, and caught him in a head lock, then flicked a gun out of his sleeve.

"Zakala! Drop him! Now!" James yelled.

"James, it's okay. It'll be OK."

James aimed the gun at Zakala's head. "Put it down James," Zakala ordered.

James shook his head. Zakala raised the gun to Thomas's neck, just below his head, and fired. While James raced forward, Zakala pressed a button and simply disappeared.

James ran to the side of his dead friend, and cradled his head in his lap. Alex skidded over the slabbed flooring and yelled for Juliet to get his medical kit. James shook his head to signal that there was nothing that they could do. Robert stood to one side, one hand on the back of his head, in disbelief, while Laura and Jane stood to one side, stationary.

Eventually, after about five minutes, James and Alex picked up the body and moved towards the invisible lift. As they moved through the archway near it, Thomas took a deep, grating breath inwards, and suddenly yelled out. Alex almost dropped Thomas' legs in shock, and James stared downwards, confused.

Alex finally let the legs drop. "Oww!" Thomas stated pointedly, staring intensely at Alex.

"How on Earth did you do that?" Jane asked.

"It's complicated," Thomas replied.

"But I checked! You were dead! Dead people don't come back to life five minutes later!" Alex yelled.

"I don't completely understand it completely myself, Doc." Thomas replied

"James, I want to get him down to the autopsy room and check him out," Alex stated, over Thomas' head.

"Well, pick him up, and we'll lug him down there." James replied.

Alex then picked up his legs again and carried Thomas to the invisible lift, before Thomas piped up "You two do know I can walk, right? I was able to do it before the gunshot, what's changed?"

"Right, you're 100%, you're better than that." Alex stated, taking off the blue gloves off his hands and throwing them into the bin near the white brick walls. Thomas swiveled to sit up on the cold steel autopsy table.

"Well, we lost Zakala," Robert stated.

"We're as in the dark as we were before we even met him," Laura added.

"Not so," Alex stated. "When I tackled him, I got a homing device attached to him. It's so small, and he won't be able to get it off him. He'll be fighting to keep us off our trail."

Juliet then entered the Autopsy Room from the main body of the Hub, clearly having just hung up after a phone call. "Captain," she said to Thomas, "Glad to see you so well." Then, turning her attention to James and Jane, who were standing at the banister surrounding the autopsy room, "I've just heard that the new Superintendent of the Police Force is going to be announced in a couple of days time. Apparently all the candidates are very eager to co-operate with us. I think they feel very red faced after what happened in Brockenhurst, and they want our help when they need it."

"Why now? We've always offered our help in the past, and they've always been very reluctant to take it," Jane replied. "We've never been hostile to helping the Police, but they've been very hostile to helping us out."

"That was Franks, though, Jane. The new Superintendent, whoever they may be, will be a welcome breath of fresh air, something Franks distinctly wasn't." James responded. He then turned away from the banister, and called back, "Thomas, a word please, in my office."

Thomas Sky settled his booted feet on the edge of James's desk as he made himself comfortable in the chair facing James' across the desk. James closed the glass door behind himself and then settled himself down in the black swivel chair behind his desk. He stared long and hard into the brown eyes of his former companion and then broke the silence.

"So, how long have you had that ability then?"

"Well, since the day that I heard that our planet was gone. All that life lost, must have gone into the two survivors. I discovered that while I was engaged in combat with one of the last senior Rift Lords on Mars. He put a spear straight through my heart," Thomas replied, signaling over the left hand side of his body. "Hurt like hell, well of course it did, because I died. But then, five minutes later, I was alive, and strangling him. Since then, the duration between death and resurrection has become ever shorter. What about you?"

"Nothing can hurt me. Bullets enter my body, but then they just disappear. I can't die. I can't even get hurt. I suppose that's because I was at the centre of the blast, you had gone by the time I had to do what I had to do." James paused, and then added "I'm sorry."

"I don't hold a grudge against you James, for doing what you had to do. That war was not going to end well. I had been sent off to attempt to get the Rift Lords to discipline Zakala, after he corrupted both sides to War. However, when I got to them, I found their society destroyed, torn apart by a War created by Zakala again. The Rift Lords had scattered, and when I tracked them down, they were hostile towards me, and the Kill Order went out against me. My orders from our military were to kill the Rift Lords if they did not co-operate, and I heard that they were going to mount an attack against the Earth with Zakala, to try and reform those bonds between them. I may have blood on my hands, but I've prevented a worse crisis here on Earth. Then, the next thing I heard of Zakala was that he had come to Earth."

"Very well. Congratulations on a successful mission. I'm very glad to see you Thomas," James replied. He watched through the windows of his office as Alex was the last to depart the autopsy room, after ending a phone call. After hanging up, without a word to anyone, he ran through the Hub, and to the car park. "Do you have anywhere to stay?" He asked Thomas, getting up and moving towards the door.

"Laura offered me the spare room at her apartment. I've brought new clothes when I was on my way back with your team, so I think I'll stay there, thanks." Thomas stated, also getting up.

James opened the door to his office, and stopped the closest person to his door, who was Juliet, who was just walking back to her work station from Laura's, after discussing with the technical expert, amongst other things, cheap clothes, and Thomas's immortality.

"Did Alex mention to you what was up?" James asked.

"No, he didn't say anything to anyone, just stormed out in a hurry. Why, what could it have been?"

"Sorry to intrude, but I am his girlfriend," Jane interrupted. "His father's been ill for a while since the attack on Brockenhurst. Alex has to look after him. That would have been his brother. I'd assume that there's been some bad news. I should go."

"Jane, I need you here right now. Juliet, can you go to Alex's house and check that everything's OK?" James asked.

"Sure, I'll go straight away." Juliet replied. Jane nodded her head in almost consent, and Juliet grabbed her car keys from her work station and then she walked out to the underground car park.


	14. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 5

**Sorry about the delay with the updates, I'm at University, so I've got a bit of work to do these days. But I am aiming to get through this story and get another one done in the new year. I'll try and update as much as possible over Christmas. **

**

* * *

**

Juliet drove out of the dirt driveway which led to the underground car park in Excalibur and drove out onto the Lyndhurst Road, and accelerated away. She noticed the encroaching darkness, as it was early evening on a late September day, and although not raining, it did look as though it was about to. Using the Excalibur gadget installed into her black Citroen C3, she was able to find Alex's address easily, and programme it into her satellite navigation kit before she had even reached Lyndhurst. She drove through Lyndhurst with little difficulty, she had lived in the New Forest for a couple of years, and knew most of the small villages like the back of her hand, and drove towards Brockenhurst, again re-entering the New Forest, and driving through the narrow and dim roads, until her Sat Nav told her to pull into a pebble drive to the left, with a gap through the trees.

She drove along the drive, through what felt like uninhabited land, but then eventually, came across a large house, in a clearing in the trees. She could see Alex's car hastily parked by the doorway of the imposing house, with a rose artistically climbing up around the large double front doors. Juliet hesitantly stepped out of her car, and then walked across the remainder of the drive, and knocked on the door three times.

The door was answered by a woman, who Juliet would have placed in her mid to late 20s, with brunette hair, in a ponytail, and quite a well-defined hourglass frame. Her face was freakishly similar to Alex's, except, obviously more feminine.

"Hello, I'm Juliet Harvey," She said, presenting I.D., "I work with Alex, and I wanted to check up on him, and see if he was OK."

"Yes, he is in, but I don't know if you'd be able to see him right now. He's extremely busy. Could you come back later?" The woman asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm guessing that's looking after your father, who was attacked earlier this month?"

"Yes, it is. How did you know?"

"We know about it back at work, I'm in the progress of closing up the investigation. Please, may I come in? We're very worried about him back at work, especially Jane."

The woman wilted, and then resignedly said "OK, you can come in," opening the door wider.

"Thank you very much." Juliet replied, entering the large, marble floored and high ceilinged hall, noticing the large marble staircase, and the imposing statues and portraits scattered around the hallway. There were four doorways leading into the hallway as well.

"I'm Elizabeth, I'm Alex's twin sister." As she introduced herself, a young girl, about five or six, with light brown hair and a pretty face, wearing a pink dress, started walking down the marble staircase towards them. "This is Madeline, my niece, Alex's older brother's daughter." Elizabeth explained. As the young girl got closer to them, Juliet crouched down to her level.

"Hello," Juliet said to her, "Madeline's a pretty name, isn't it? I'm Juliet."

Madeline simply tried to hide behind her aunt's legs. "I'm sorry, she's very shy," Elizabeth explained. "I'll take you up to see Alex now."

Meanwhile, in the Hub, Laura was watching a map, with a single red dot on it on one of her computer screens, while the others were running security scans on the Chapel above. Jane came over, carrying a file and rested one of her hands on Laura's right shoulder. She put the folder down on the side of Laura's desk.

"How are things going?" Jane asked.

"We can't find anything that Zakala's placed around the Chapel; I think we're bug free. He's also stopped somewhere that seems to be a Youth Hostel in the centre of Southampton. Might be an idea to see if we can catch him there."

"I'll ask James," Jane replied, as she turned to go back into James' office, where he and Thomas were still chatting. "I'll leave it until they're done," she thought aloud.

"How are things with you and Alex?" Laura asked, suddenly and unexpectedly.

"Oh…well, going as well as they could be considering he's got a terminally ill father. He doesn't really have much time for me at the moment, so we're in a bit of a rough patch, but I'm sure we'll pull through it. How about you, Laura? Any men on the horizon for you at the moment?"

"No such luck really, I haven't been home since the Rift suddenly appeared, reading abnormalities. It would be difficult to lead a 'normal' life with someone, doing what we do."

"Well, Juliet seems to be keeping it together, and her boyfriend's in the Police," Jane replied. "That's a fairly normal life."

"They are basically in the same career path though, except Juliet deals with more extra-terrestrials than John." Laura replied.

Jane was still watching James and Thomas in his office, and their conversation seemed to come to a lull, and strode off into James' office with the folder from Laura's desk.

As Juliet entered the large bedroom from the large marble corridor, she basically entered a luxurious hospital room. Placed centrally, in a King sized four poster bed, was a man in pyjamas, considered by Juliet to be in his mid-to late 50s, appearing to be asleep, however, on closer inspection, she could see tubes and needles sticking out of his arms, nostrils, and a load of medical machinery around his bed. As the door closed behind her, a man sitting the closer side of the bed to it turned. Juliet was struck by how much like Alex he looked, but there were differences. He had the faint outlines of a five o clock shadow around his face, and had slightly longer hair. He wore a white silk shirt, open at the neck, and brown trousers on.

"Hello? Who are you?" He inquired.

"I'm Juliet Harvey; I'm a colleague of Alex's. I came here to check he was OK, he stormed out of work in a bit of a hurry. Elizabeth told me he'd be up here."

At that moment, Alex appeared from behind some medical equipment, an almost resigned look on his face. "Hi Juliet, I see you've met my brother, Nick. I'm guessing they're worried about me at work?"

"Yeah, they are. They sent me here to check that you're as well as you can be."

"My dad's been dying for the last two weeks, Juliet, how the hell do you think that makes me feel?" Alex yelled, causing Juliet to storm back out of the room, and then rest her body against the stone cold wall beside the brown varnished door to the room.

Meanwhile, back at the Hub, James, Jane, Robert and Thomas were eating some kind of lunch, considering the time of day they were eating, of sandwiches and drinking steaming coffee crashed out on the sofa, with their feet up on the table, while Laura was still working, while her sandwich and coffee gradually got more and more neglected as she typed. James watched her from the sofa, looking increasingly worried.

"You need to stop obsessing about it," James stated. "He'll have to stop somewhere eventually, and then we'll close him down and get him."

Laura turned to face the occupants of the sofa who were against the wall behind her wall station. "I need to keep tabs on him; he's causing too much trouble."

"Well, still, eat your sandwich while you work," Robert replied.

Laura turned to the side to bite into her tuna sandwich, and take a sip of her cup of coffee. "It's driving me crazy. He doesn't seem to be staying in one place for longer. It's even getting so late, he must be about to stop off somewhere."

"Look, Laura, Robert and I will watch him for a while, if you like. You should take Thomas back to you apartment, and help him get settled. We'll go and move his stuff from the SUV to your car, and then you can take him back to yours," James stated. "Finish your sandwich and your coffee, then take off. If he stays anywhere, it'll be overnight, and we can deal with it in the morning. Even if he moves from there again, I'll be here all night. "He paused. "You know me, can't wait for the aliens to attack between nine and five."

Laura nodded in consent. "OK, I'll leave this program up for you." As she tucked into her sandwich, the program beeped at her. "He's stopped!" She stated. "Downtown Southampton. A Youth Hostel. I'm guessing that's him down for the night."

Jane leapt up off the sofa, "I'll call Juliet and Alex and tell them about what's happening, and tell them about what we'll do first thing in the morning."

"Juliet will need to make contact with the Police, it would be useful for us to have some help in containing Zakala when he tries to make a break for it," Robert stated.


	15. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 6

**A/N:** Hey, I know it's been a long time since an update, but here we are - new, extra long chapter. A bit of house keeping - something has finally happened with the project with my friend - if you look in the Doctor Who category for _Misguided Ghosts_. It is a co-authored (with part of it written by me). It is the story that explains why the Doctor appears to James in _Brief Encounter_.

Read and Review please. I don't like talking to myself.

* * *

Alex returned to the Hub the next day, wearing his black leather coat and a laptop bag, slightly ashen faced, to find a full Hub, full of anticipation and nerves. Jane gave him a smile, while fidgeting with a pen from her desk between her finely manicured fingers, absent mindedly. Juliet didn't even look up from her desk; instead, she tossed her raven black hair, and called a number on her mobile phone, sitting down at her desk. Meanwhile, Laura and James walked from James' office into the main body of the Hub, discussing things between each other. Meanwhile Thomas was crashed out on the sofa, throwing a balled up piece of paper into the air, and effortless catching it in his left hand. Robert emerged from the armoury, checking the clip on his gun before loading it, and aiming down his sights.

James turned to see Alex standing at the door to the underground car park. "Are you going to take your coat off, or are you not staying?"

Alex shrugged off his black leather coat, and hung it up on the coat rack by the door to the car park. As he walked towards the stone steps, he started fumbling with the clasps on the bag, and starting to pull something out of his bag. He approached Juliet's desk, which was the closest to James's office, overlooking the autopsy room, but behind what was Robert's desk, separated by a shield of Perspex glass, where Juliet sat on the phone. Alex walked past Laura, Jane and Robert's desk, turned the corner and stood by the edge of Juliet's desk. He waited for Juliet to end her phone call, and then finally took the item out of his bag. It was a box of chocolates, with a card for Juliet attached.

"I'm not good at apologies, but this is my best attempt at one. I'm really sorry for snapping at you, Juliet. But you can understand why I did. I'm so stressed with this job. It's wonderful, but when you're working with people like James, and Thomas, when you've got a sick, dying father at home, you can't stand it. They have so much life, yet he's on borrowed time. It's not like James hasn't tried to help, because he has. Every week. But this job is so extraordinary."

"Don't worry, Alex, I completely understand. Are you going to be okay for this mission today?" Juliet asked.

"I'll be fine, I'm a professional," Alex replied.

James came out of his office, wearing just a white t-shirt and his grey trousers, with his brown leather breeches hanging redundantly around his waist band. Thomas followed him out of his office, holding one of his light blue shirts, ready for James to put it on.

"Jane, can you run everyone through the plan please?" James stated, pulling on his shirt onto his broad shoulders and doing up the buttons. Jane nodded and pressed a button on her computer. The computer screens on everyone's work station was taken over with an animation of the Youth Hostel in the centre of Southampton including four red dots dotted around the Hostel, the first labelled 'James, Jane and Juliet', the second labelled 'Thomas and Robert', the third 'Laura and Alex', above which was a further label, declaiming SUV, and the fourth was labelled 'Police', and there was a further label which stated 'Squad Car'.

"James, Juliet and I will take the back-up SUV and we'll approach by the front entrance. This will be the official approach by us. We'll enter on the ground floor, and go up to the first floor, where the reception is. We believe that Zakala is up on the second floor, in one of the rooms up there. By going up to reception, we will get the key cards, which grant access to the areas of the hostel, such as the rooms, the laundry and the roof terrace. Juliet and James will then advance up to the second floor to confront Zakala, and I will go back downstairs to give Robert and Thomas, who will be standing at the side exit, a key card, just in case." Jane cast both Robert and Thomas significant looks; Thomas had been playing with a loose thread from his hoody, while Robert was straightening the cuffs on his light pink shirt. "I will then stand guard on the ground floor, watching the front door. Alex and Laura will be in the other SUV, monitoring the situation, parked in the side street behind the hostel, just in case he manages to escape. There will also be a squad car with officers, just in case Zakala does escape. However, the chances of this will be slim, as the only possible escape route he can take is from the roof terrace, which is four floors up." Jane stated. "Juliet, have you sorted out the squad car with the Police?"

"I've spoken to John, my boyfriend, and to Jack, my former partner on the beat, and they both said that they'd be there in ten to fifteen minutes," Juliet replied, sweeping her hair out of her green eyes.

"Any questions?" Jane asked, looking around the room. Alex stuck his hand in the air.

"What about his teleport device? Can't he just zap himself out of there?" He asked, playing with one of his curly locks absent mindedly.

"He will have burnt out the last of the power in that thing just trying to get away. It was powered by the Rift Lords, he would have had two journeys maximum after Thomas killed them off and destroyed the mother ship. I figure, one to get him to Earth, another to get him out of that Chapel. So that device will have burnt out by now," James stated, as Robert carried his heavy blue, military greatcoat. "Anything else?"

The Hub stood in silence, and everyone shook their heads. "Everyone to the SUVs, now," Jane ordered.

* * *

The reserve SUV skidded to a halt outside the front door to the Youth Hostel, which was further down the road from the West Quay shopping centre, on Portland Terrace. Jane and Juliet jumped out of the SUV; meanwhile, James paused inside the SUV to put his hand up to the Bluetooth headset in his ear.

"Alex, Robert, are you in position?"

"_Parked around the back of the Hostel, and all systems are a-go here, James,"_ Alex announced. _"The Police are here as well, and in position."_

"_Thomas and I are at the side entrance of the building, and ready for the plan to commence," _Robert replied.

James swung open the black driver's door of the SUV, pulling himself out onto the street of Southampton. The street was bustling, with shoppers walking back and forth, away and towards the shopping centre. James's attire got him a great deal of odd looks from people walking between them, but James just shrugged off the odd looks, while Juliet glanced down the alleyway, to nod to Robert and Thomas. James then joined his female companions, and the three of them walked towards the front entrance to the Youth Hostel.

They walked up the ramp that took them inside, through the glass swing doors, and found themselves on a metal slatted floor. The youth hostel was set out in square shape, but in the middle, there was an architectural dig site, where old terraced houses had stood at the end of the 19th Century. However, due to an outbreak of bubonic plague, the houses had to be torn down. The architectural site revealed pipes and red brick foundations, almost like veins running through the Earth. Directly opposite the front door was a row of rooms of the hostel, and walking to the edge of the walkway, they leant up against the steel safety bar, and looked up at the open roof. To the right of them was a set of metal stairs, and an elevator. James pressed the button for it, and they waited for a couple of seconds for the numbers on the plasma screen to tumble, until they showed the letter 'G'. The lift doors slid open and the trio stepped inside.

Inside the lift, there was a panel with four buttons, however, a notice proclaimed 'Access without a Key Card to First Floor'. There was also a socket, with a red and green light attached, which was clearly for key cards. Jane pressed the first floor button, and they felt the familiar lurch in their stomachs as they went up a floor.

Exiting onto the first floor, they stepped into a large open plan room. Directly opposite the lift was the reception desk, behind which sat a disinterested young man. To the right of them was a row of computer terminals, and there were some people sitting at them, staring at their Facebook pages or at Skype conversations, completely immersed. Beyond them, was a lounge, which had glass tables, similar to those found in a museum, containing items found during the digs. Further beyond that, there were four kitchens for the use of those living there. Behind them, there was a corridor leading off to another staircase to the upper floors. Juliet, James and Jane moved towards the desk, James leaning over it when he approached it, towards the young man at the computer, who had a pair of black rimmed spectacles hanging from his mouth, chewing on one of the handles, ignoring them. James snatched them from his mouth, which made him look up.

"Sorry, can I help you?" He said in a slow drawl.

"Yes, I'm looking for a man who checked in here at about 8p.m last night. He's about six foot, and has a shock of medium length blond hair," James announced.

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to divulge information about guests to strangers, sir," the man announced. Jane pulled something out of her inside coat pocket in a small leather case, opened it, and flashed it in front of the guy's face. All he could see was a government logo. He backed off a bit, and looked slightly shocked.

"You don't look like Spooks," he stated bluntly.

"That's not exactly who we are," Juliet replied quickly, with a wry smile.

"Now you come to mention it, yes, he did check in here. He's in room 128." He reached into a box by the side of his computer, and pulled out a piece of orange card. "That's the key card for the lift, and for the room."

"Can we have another one please?" Jane asked, off the look of the receptionist, she explained, "We've got two more people by the side door, just in case he tries to escape. I'll go down and give it to them." The man passed another orange card over. "Thank you.

The trio walked away from the desk, and back into the lift. James pressed the ground floor and second floor buttons, and the three of them staring at their reflections in the reflections, the former soldiers, the ex-police woman, and the alien expert. The lift arrived at the ground floor, and Jane stepped out, stating her farewells. As the lift doors closed, James touched his Bluetooth device.

"All messages about the progress on the mission are to be sent to Jane until further notice. Start radio silence with me and Juliet," James stated.

The lift stopped on the second floor, and they stepped out into a square room, where there were staircases leading back downwards and up to the third floor. There were two corridors, one leading off towards a covered roof, the other one went along to a corridor that was topped off by a roof terrace, with the square in the middle still missing, looking down on the dig site, with a boundary of a half white wall. James and Juliet walked past door after door, until eventually they reached Room 128. Directly opposite the door, there was yet another iron staircase leading up to the third floor and the roof terrace. On the other side of the square was a walkway was the access to the laundry room. They approached the orange door of the room, and Juliet took the key card for the door, and slotted it into a silver panel above the door handle. The light flashed green, and the lock clicked. James pulled the handle down, and swung the door open.

The room was medium sized, with a mounted plasma screen on the wall. To one side, there was an unmade bed. The rest of the room looked relatively untouched. To one side of the bed, was an item that James was taking great interest in.

"It's his wrist strap. Told you it was going to have run out of energy." James told her. From behind her, they heard a door hastily open across the hall, and running up the metal flight of stairs opposite the door. Juliet moved back towards the door, in pursuit. James turned, realised she was gone, and then pursued her.

Zakala ran towards the open door way that led to the roof terrace, which was on the upper floor but opposite where he had been staying. The two Excalibur employees were in close pursuit, limbs flailing. The roof terrace had views over the Docks of Southampton, and had sun loungers and picnic tables on it, which they had to dodge between. Zakala was waiting at the edge of the terrace for them to get close. James got to him first.

"Hold it right there!" James barked, levelling his Webley at Zakala's head. "You're coming In with us!" Juliet stopped next to him, and breathlessly pulled out her Marui HiCapa 4.3 from her arm holster.

"Oh, I don't think so," Zakala said, putting both his hands onto the side railing, and vaulting over it. James and Juliet darted forwards, believing he had plummeted to his death, only to find that he had landed firmly on flat roof on the top of the building next door, and then there was a further lower building, until he eventually found himself on street level. James rolled his eyes and touched his ear.

"_Alex, he got away and he got down from the rooftops. He's on street level, waiting for you. Same for you, Robert and Thomas. It's your turn, guys."_

_

* * *

_

Down on street level, Zakala ran past the SUV and the squad car. Robert and Thomas ran down the alley way and leapt into the back of the big black car, as Alex fired up the engine.

Meanwhile, in the squad car, John started the engine. The SUV roared down the street in pursuit, as Zakala disappeared down a small side street on the other side of the road. Alex pulled down a proper road into a busy main road. As a result, they turned on the blue lights in the windscreen to clear the way, and the squad car turned on their lights and sirens. However, after about five minutes of chasing him by car, he disappeared closer to the Shopping Centre. After both policemen and the three team members and Thomas had scoured the area, they could not find him.

John was the one to make contact with James, "We've lost him, he gave us the slip in West Quay and we've searched everywhere. On top of that, our new Chief Constable wants to see you, first thing tomorrow morning."

Laura confirmed the bad news, "He's clearly found the tracking bug, and its exact location is currently on a stray cat prowling around Southampton. I'm sorry, James."


	16. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Annette Corona was a highly ambitious woman. She had been a high flyer through the Police Force, managing to get up to the rank of Chief Constable in the space of eight years. She had everything, a husband, two kids, and a dog. James had done his research, and found out all about her. She and the replacement Deputy Chief Constable, Faye Cayer, had come down from Cambridge to replace Inspector Franks.

James could have gathered this from the pictures on her desk, the family portraits and the pictures of Cambridge on her desk. He was sat on the opposite side of the desk, facing a large picture window, waiting for the two police officers to arrive, overlooking a Southampton street. Rain lashed against the window and thunder ominously rumbled, just as he heard footsteps stopping outside the door of the office. The heavy doors swung open to reveal the two police officers. James stood from his chair, and took his coat off, standing in a dark blue shirt, with a waistcoat, covering his breeches. A silver chain dangled from a button hole to one of the pockets of the waistcoat. The two policewomen were wearing normal uniforms – white shirts, black ties, with black epaulettes. One of which had a crown and a crest with two sticks with red ends on it, and the other, shorter woman with a silver diamond and the same crest beneath it. The taller policewoman, James knew was Annette Corona, with vibrant red hair, and, although James wouldn't admit it, she was very attractive. She had a light smattering of freckles across her face, just below her green, orb-like eyes. The shorter woman had her dark brown or black hair up in a ponytail, and looked slightly inexperienced.

Annette Corona extended her hand for a shake. "Chief Constable Annette Corona, it's a pleasure to meet you, Captain. I've been reading your file."

"I've been reading yours," James replied quickly, returning the shake and moving over to Faye Carter.

"Listen, Captain, I understand that our predecessor wasn't exactly _supportive_," James snorted in derision, "but Chief Constable Gerald Franks' view was completely understandable. You do go out of our reach but you almost expect our co-operation."

James sat in silence in his chair while the two women sat behind the expensive looking desk.

"If you expect our full co-operation," Faye Carter stated, "I'm afraid you're going to have to explain exactly what we're up against. Those creatures that attacked, killing nine, wounding 20 more, including a former police officer. Tell us exactly what we are up against!"

"You want to know what my little team and I are fighting for? What we're fighting against? We are fighting for the human race against the Universe. There is a Rift in Time and Space, I don't know how big, but it's along the Hampshire Coast. On top of that, check your government records, the government approved a contract to build a radio mast that brought anything heading for Britain from Space. Excalibur has teams in the USA and in Australia, although, I hope that they are okay, I haven't heard from either of them in a while," Captain James Harknell stated, stroking his chin. "The six of us, are defending this country. So, are you with us?"

Laura awoke with a start, knowing that something, everything was different. Her bed, normally icy cold, felt much warmer. Her normally empty flat suddenly seemed so much more alive, and far less lukewarm – Laura very rarely spend very much time at home, as she was generally working at the Hub all day and all night. But now, everything seemed to be different. The light shining through her plain curtains in her untidy bedroom, shone onto her drowsy face, and shining onto the body behind her, that was quietly dozing. He vision was fuzzy without her spectacles, resting on the bed side table, and she then reached for the discarded garments on the floor, in particular, her jacket, which contained her Excalibur PDA. Pulling up the blanket to cover her naked body, she checked for any recent Rift flares. The movement of the bed sheets caused her bed fellow to stir, and Laura glanced over at an empty bottle of wine on the other side of her double bed.

Taking a second chance to note the other occupier of her bed, she almost shrieked when she realised who it was. It was obvious when she thought about it, but she was gazing on the naked torso of Captain Thomas Sky.

Juliet was stressed. She had got a day off from Excalibur, as had John from the Police, and it was that day that both sets of their parents had chosen to come down for an impromptu visit to their flat in Brockenhurst. Juliet's parents were coming down from Kilburn in London, while, John's parents were coming down from York. She just knew, however much she cleaned, her mother would find some fault in the job she had done. She was aware how much of a tip her flat that she shared with John had become since she had taken the Excalibur job back in August, which was the last time that she felt like she had had time to clean it up. Coincidentally that was the last time that her parents had come down, just before her world had been turned upside down.

Juliet ran a duster over the mantelpiece over the mock fireplace, brushing off loose specs of dust from the photo frames which contained photos of John and Juliet in the New Forest, from their weekend in Cardiff and Paris, and another picture of just Juliet standing in the middle of the lounge in the new flat.

The doorbell rang on the front door to their flat. John burst out of the bathroom, throwing a pair of luminous yellow gloves behind him along the beige carpeted corridor, to open the white door.

"John!" a female voice seemed to bellow before entering the hallway.

"Hello mum! Good trip?" He asked, kissing his mother on the cheek, and shaking hands with his father.

"Well, we got delayed at the Blackwall Tunnel, typical traffic in London really." She moved towards Juliet. John's mother was a middle aged woman with slightly greying red hair, relatively short and chubby. She moved to kiss Juliet on the cheek.

"Hello Juliet, how are you dear?"

"I'm fine, thank you Liz," Juliet replied. "I'm sorry the weather isn't better for you."

"It's alright, don't worry about it." The two of them moved into the sitting room. "When are your parents getting here?"

"A couple of hours' time. John was going to put some soup on, when Christopher gets up here."

Meanwhile, across in the New Forest, Doctor Alex Brown was flicking the switch off on the life support system and detaching the leads that attached it to his father's body. Tears ran down his face, and onto the medical scrubs he had adorned beside his father's bedside.

On the other side of the room, the blonde haired Excalibur alien expert and Alex's girlfriend watched him mournfully and with eyes full of sorrow.

"You think those people were just teenagers dressed up and pulling a prank? They were aliens from another world. And now, it's going to get so much worse. There is now a Rift in Space and Time that runs through part of the South of this country. The guy we were chasing, he's not human. Hence the fact he jumped so easily from roof to roof, without breaking anything. And how he's managed to escape us."

"So what does he want?" Faye Cayer asked, briefly taking her blue biro from her notepad.

"That's the thing," James replied. "We just don't know. But we're sure as hell going to find out. We would really appreciate your co-operation. I know you might not like it, but go to Whitehall, call your superiors, and you'll be told everything you really need to know."

About half an hour later, James exited the police station into the unrelenting rain. He tightly wrapped his woollen military greatness around himself, then pulled up the collar to protect his neck against the rain, and walked briskly towards the SUV parked at the end of the pedestrianized street.


	17. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"I'm getting reports that someone similar to Zakala has broken into the Life Sciences building at the University of Southampton. Apparently he knocked two security guards unconscious and broke into a laboratory. Police are on the scene, do you want to go and check it out?" Juliet asked, but before she'd finished, James had already barged past her towards the Underground car park, pulling on his military great coat from the coat rack by the door to his office. Just as she turned to follow him, James turned on his boot heel.

"No, you go to back to John. You've got a parent aftermath to deal with. Alex!" He called. The pale skinned black haired medic looked over inquisitively. "With me!"

The medic rubbed sleep from his eyes, and pulled on his black leather jacket over his red t-shirt, and chased after the Captain.

"Only me," Juliet called into the flat as she took her key from the lock. It was late, and she could see the light of the TV reflecting against the wall of the front room.

"Hiya! In here!" John called back. Juliet walked down the corridor towards the lounge. Entering the room, she could see John spread out on the sofa watching some reality programme. Juliet joined him as he scooted up the sofa.

"How long have the parents been gone?" she asked

"About an hour. How was work?" John asked quickly.

"It was okay. Are you alright?"

"Just worried that you're lying to me, Juliet!" He yelled. "And that you're abusing my position in the Police and putting my job at risk!"

"What do you mean?" Juliet replied, shocked and taken aback.

"I spoke to the head of special ops the other day at work, and spoke to him about the guy at the Youth Hostel. He didn't know what I was talking about. Then I spoke to my boss, and she told me that it was something else entirely."

Juliet sat moodily on the sofa, feeling like a child being told off by a particularly stern parent.

"It can't be vigilante work. I've seen the pay checks. So what is it exactly that you do?"

"I'm picking up more reports of a figure looking like Zakala who has entered the observatory further down the top of the slope, just along from the chapel above us. Closer to Beaulieu," Laura stated.

"How has he got from Southampton University to Beaulieu in that amount of time?" Robert asked, sitting next to Thomas on the sofa, who was making a yellowed piece of paper into an aeroplane with his long thin fingers. "They're nearly 15 miles apart!

"I don't know. But we should go and check it out," Laura replied.

Jane rushed through the middle of the work stations into James's office, and snatched the spare SUV keys from a bronze hook in the brick wall.

"Robert! Thomas! With me. Laura, keep the comms link open between us and James and you. We're going to the Observatory."

Robert and Thomas both leapt up from the sofa, Robert buttoning up his suit jacket and brushing a few sandwich crumbs off his trousers, before following Thomas and Jane, who were already half way across the Hub floor, striding towards the underground car park.

Alex hastily hit the brakes on the SUV, as it screeched to a halt outside the Hartley Library on the University of Southampton campus. Alex and James stepped out of the big black car towards the modern looking Life Sciences building, standing proudly. The wood panelling and mainly glass exterior added to the modern feeling of the building. Flashing blue light from the police cars surrounding the building reflected off the glass, and there was a yellow and blue boundary around the entrance with police men and women in fluorescent jackets. A couple of students walking to and from the library for late night studying, stopped and stared at the two men as they ran over to the boundary.

"Captain James Harknell and Doctor Alex Brown. We're here to check up on the chemical that the intruder made in the laboratory," James stated. "We're Excalibur."

The police woman at the tape lifted it up, and the two of them ducked under it.

"It's Lab 2351, by the way. Second floor." The police woman told them, and James nodded as he walked up the concrete slab steps and Alex bounded up them two at a time. The pair walked through the rows of foliage that led to the glass sliding doors, and entered the main reception area. It was bustling with police strolling across the room making reports to their superiors over their walkie talkies, but James and Alex strolled boldly through the area to a lift facing the main door. Alex pressed a button for the second floor and the lift doors closed.

The brief portion of the journey in the lift was conducted in a stony silence, with the only sound being the ping of the lift as they arrived on the second floor and the lift doors rolled back. James exited straight away, his long grey coat flaring out behind him, while Alex trailed in his wake.

They walked down a long corridor towards a lab which had a smashed out square window with glass lying on the lab floor inside. James opened the door, and found a lab in disarray. Bunsen burners were alight on the rows of work benches that lined up towards the back of the room. However, only one was boiling anything – there was a glass beaker with the remnants of a green tinted liquid but it was translucent. James stood over the heated beaker and inhaled, then swiftly gagged and coughed violently.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

James' voice came out slightly strangled. "It's poison. Not just any poison, an unearthly one. Combinations of acids that this world doesn't know about yet." James touched his ear piece. "Laura, is Jane's report on that dart that Alex found during the Cavendish investigation around? They should be by my desk."

"_I've got them here. What would you like to know?"_

"Did Jane identify what acid it was that was contained within it?"

"The report only states that it's about 10 times more acidic than most Earth acids. Apparently, it dissolved the litmus paper when it was tested."

Alex was, meanwhile, searching a supply cupboard, checking whether anything had been stolen.

"Right, so, Zakala's preparing for a fight. I'll go and warn the Police. What are you doing?" James asked.

"James, five test tubes and corks have been stolen."

"How do you know they've been stolen?"

"There are supply checks conducted each evening so they know whether they need to replace anything. Today, no breakages," The medic stated, running his hand across a line of a table on a piece of paper. "So, stolen."

"It's difficult to explain, John," Juliet replied quietly, with an almost guilty tone.

"So that's why you've been lying to me then? Well, luckily for me, my boss didn't. She's been speaking to your boss, the 'Captain', and he explained everything to them. So why can't you tell me then?" John responded quickly and angrily.

"Firstly, he is a Captain, he served in the Two World Wars! Secondly, I didn't want to put you in danger!"

"Huh, Two World Wars? He only looks about 30! And like, I'm not in danger anyway, being in the Police and everything."

"Fine!" Juliet yelled. "I hunt aliens for a living! You can't argue with the existence of aliens after what happened in Brockenhurst a couple of weeks ago! That wasn't humans. That was aliens!"

Robert stepped out of the car door of the SUV onto the gravel car park surface for the abandoned Observatory, which had a load of weeds growing through it. The observatory looked old and worn down, and so Robert could see why they had relocated to Southampton.

Jane and Thomas also exited the SUV out onto the car park surface, which crunched under foot. The three of them walked down a narrow path, Robert checking readings on his black PDA.

"There are three life readings in that building. Who else is in there with him?"

"I guess we're going to have to find out," Thomas replied, pushing open the fogged up glass doors.

The image on Robert's PDA changed as they entered the circular building, to an image showing the blue prints of the building. It showed three red dots in different areas and on different floors.

"Right, we'll split up. I'll take the one top right, Thomas take top left, Robert, you take ground floor," Jane stated, taking her role of second-in-command.

The three of them split up in different directions, Thomas and Jane heading over towards the staircase. Robert moved through the reception area, where the desk and the area stood desolate, with an empty, overturned water cooler. The lights, which had previously been off, began to flicker on and off.

Robert touched his ear. "Are you getting flickering lights up there too?" Robert's Bluetooth device hissed with static. "Great. Cut off again." Robert commented to himself.

He lifted his PDA up to read it. He could see the heat signature getting ever closer as he walked towards an office to the right hand side of him. His device then started bleeping, and so, Robert drew out his gun, and carefully entered the disused office.

It was empty. As the lights flickered on and off, all Robert was aware of was a quiet beeping noise coming from under an overturned desk. As he circled the desk he saw the device. A small, silvery, square device, with a countdown on the screen, which had just reached 00:03. Robert took a deep breath to calm himself, and braced for the impact.

Then, everything went dark.


	18. Author Note

**Dear all of you who are still here,**

**Excalibur: On The Edge is coming towards a natural close – there is a third story coming. I have written the final chapter, and have just started Chapter 9 – and as a result have concluded that this story is probably going to close on Chapter 11 – there's definitely another chapter waiting to be written. Currently, I am revising for exams, while reading Russell T Davies' **_**The Writer's Tale**_**, which is more interesting than I thought it would be. It has given me the inspiration to close **_**On The Edge**_** in the way that I have decided. It is my last exam tomorrow, I am currently struggling with how to deal with Chapter 9 – trying to bring several strands together.**

**Right, and now onto Excalibur 3. Excalibur 3 will be set in 2012 – which is the prophecy for when the world will end. The recurring members returning for this story will be the Excalibur team, plus Zakala and Captain Thomas Sky, along with other 'supporting cast'. However, the thing that excites me about this story is that also appearing will be The 11****th**** Doctor! (along with Amy Pond and Rory Williams, as well as River Song) – not going to lie – might be a bit of a strain on my writing skills :-P.**

**Beyond the madness of Story 3, there is a fourth to come. Later one night, when I could not sleep, I came up with the idea for this story. This story will be far more simple (ie, fewer characters after the chaos of Excalibur 3). **

**It's going to be fun…maybe not to write…but I hope it is to read. So to sum up – Excalibur 2 nearly complete. The Doctor in Excalibur 3! Back to basics in Excalibur 4.**


	19. Excalibur: On the Edge Chapter 9

**A/N: Here is the new Chapter of Excalibur. Read and Review :-)**

* * *

Robert blinked back into consciousness, the taste of blood fresh in his mouth, and he could feel a wet stream down the side of his face. The wall he had hurtled through when the bomb had gone off lay in rubble around him, and the disused observatory was rubble and dust beside him. Lying on his back, he looked straight upwards. There stood the flowing grey, great coat, of Captain James Harknell, with the most concerned look on his face that Robert had ever seen.

"Robert. Where are Thomas and Jane?" He asked urgently.

"They were upstairs. I don't know whether they got out. I was lucky; I was positioned by the wall. The explosion carried me through," Robert replied.

Alex approached from the other SUV, a first aid kit in his hand. Robert was distinctly aware of Laura standing further back in the group as he eased himself back to his feet. Alex held an antiseptic cloth up to Robert's head, while shining a light into his eyes.

"You're fine, Rob. Now we've got to get the other two out of there. My PDA reckons that registers one heartbeat. That means that one of them is dead." Alex stated a slight crack in his voice. "Enough of the structure of the second floor survives, but it's tricky. We'd have to be careful."

"The structure should hold enough for us to be able to get them out of there," James stated, bluntly. "Alex, with me. Laura, look after Robert."

* * *

Alex and James carefully entered the ruined observatory, via the smashed and trashed glass doors, which were beginning to hang off their hinges.

"The basic shell of the building still seems to be in shape. Apart from the obvious bomb damage, this observatory was built to last. After all, it was prepared for the Hampshire beacon." James stated, taking readings from his PDA.

"Are we sure that the life reading isn't Zakala?" Alex asked.

"Zakala seems to have disappeared. In this exact moment, Doctor Brown, we need to be worrying about **your **girlfriend, and one of my closest friends, our team mates."

"But Thomas will survive anything, won't he?" James gave the medic a look as if to tell him to take nothing for granted.

The two men walked onwards until they reached a spiral staircase. Dust was being kicked up by their every move, the air thick with it.

"JANE! THOMAS!" James called as they walked up the staircase.

"_James, Juliet and John are on their way to you. Juliet said that John knew."_ Laura stated, in James' ear.

"I knew this day would come. Is he coming up? He could be useful," James replied.

A weak cry came up from the left as they reached the spiral staircase. James and Alex ran in the direction of it, the med-kit that the doctor was carrying swaying and jingling. They could see a pile of rubble lying on top of Jane to the left. Behind them, they could hear grunting footsteps as Thomas staggered behind them, his body still healing from removing a heavy metal girder from his stomach, the evidence of which could still be seen on his t-shirt.

Jane lay under a pile of bricks with an immense amount of pain searing through her right shoulder. She could hear the footsteps coming towards her. She was going to be okay.

Approaching from behind the rescue party were two more figures, Juliet and her boyfriend, John. Both wore worried expressions of doubt and grief on their faces as they saw the destruction of the top floor, and as they walked behind James, Alex and the slightly limping Thomas.

When they saw Jane, a main group of James, Alex, Juliet and John ran over to her, and started to pull the slabs of concrete off of her body. Thomas joined shortly afterwards, to complete freeing her. Before they pulled her out of the dust and rubble, Alex did a quick medical check, and found that she had been extremely fortunate and had only fractured her lower arm. Alex quickly bandaged up her arm, and she got up.

"Why did Zakala do this?" Jane asked.

"We don't know, he knew we couldn't resist the temptation to try and catch him, I suppose," James replied.

There was a bleep from Thomas's wrist device. He flicked it open, and glanced at the read out. "There's a space cruiser in orbit at this very moment, its final destination, the very edge of the Universe. I bet Zakala will be attempting to get aboard, somehow. I'd better go."

The six of them walked carefully around the top floor, and started to go back down the spiral staircase to the ground floor. Thomas held back at the staircase. James noticed and ran back to him.

"What's wrong?" Captain James asked his oldest friend.

"I have to go – but I don't want to say goodbye to Laura," Thomas replied.

The other four stopped walking, but James gestured for them to get out, which they obeyed. "Why not? What's happened?"

"We slept together. A handful of times. I don't want to say goodbye to her, because I don't know when I'll see her again."

"That's the curse of the time traveller. I understand. Go!" He ordered.

Thomas disappeared, in a flash of an eye, and all that was left was the smell and taste of fried bacon. James turned on his booted heel, and walked back out through the door.

"Where's Thomas? Is he okay?" Laura asked desperately.

"He had to go," James replied, with a knowing look straight into Laura's eyes. She piped down immediately, and the look on her face turned more upset than worried. James then turned to John. "John Black? Captain James Harknell, head of Excalibur." James warmly extended his hand. John cautiously took the hand and shook it. "We'll do further formal introductions when we get back to the Hub. Laura, I need you to cover this explosion up, try and get a demolition planned for the site. Robert and Jane, I want you two to stand down," he ordered, and seeing they were about to interject, he added "You two need rest, return to your homes, as soon as Alex is satisfied that you've sufficiently recovered."

* * *

When they had brought the SUV back to the Hub, and Juliet and John's car had successfully parked in the underground car park, James led John, Juliet, Alex and Laura back into the Hub.

"Welcome to Excalibur!" He stated boldly to John, as they exited the narrow corridor.


	20. Excalibur: On The Edge Chapter 10

**Apologies for the filler chapter, and the pause between this and Chapter 9, but I've been on holiday. To make up for the length, I am uploading the final Chapter and the Epilogue tonight, and a preview of Story 3.**

* * *

The sheer scale of the Hub made John almost recoil in shock. "But…but, who knows this is down here?" he asked.

"Just us six and the Security Services know this is down here. The two people who left at the Observatory were Robert Jones and Jane Asker. This is Doctor Alex Brown and Laura Prince," the two nodded. "Juliet, give John the tour. Laura, in my office, now."

"What should I do, James?" Alex asked.

"If you want to go home, Alex, that's fine, there's nothing to do until tomorrow."

Alex left the Hub, and Juliet and John descended the staircase down to the Vaults. Laura followed James up the steps and through the work area, then into James' office, closing the glass door behind her.

"So, you and Captain Thomas Sky? You slept together?" James asked, before he had settled down in his chair, in fact, he was at the coat rack, taking off his long grey coat and replacing it with a black waist coat over his dark blue t-shirt, then settled in the swivel chair behind his old fashioned desk.

"Possibly." Laura replied, shortly, not really wanting to meet James' eyes.

"No, not possibly, Laura, he told me. You slept together 'a handful of times', he said. Why?"

"Because, James, this job means that I haven't been on a date in the last five years. When I joined the Observatory, it meant that I could try and have a social life, but this, while I wouldn't trade it for the World, doesn't. So if you throw me an attractive man, what am I supposed to do?"

James paused, and didn't seem to want to answer. "You do know you might never see him again. He's a time traveller, I don't want to see you get too attached. You'll end up getting hurt and heartbroken."

"Don't worry, James. It was just sex, and forgetting about Excalibur, just for one night. I didn't get too attached to him."


	21. Excalibur: On The Edge Chapter 11

**Here it is, the final Chapter of Excalibur: On The Edge. Read, review and enjoy.**

* * *

Red lights began to flash, and the entire Hub went into lock down. The cog door rolled back into place, blocking the circular doorway to the staircase into the Hub, and the team could hear it bolt shut. Everyone on the Hub floor dashed into action, towards their work stations, illuminated by a red glow of flashing light.

"We've got a security breach, Level 5. Someone has penetrated the Vaults of the Hub." Jane stated, panicking.

"How on earth would they get into the Vaults?" Juliet asked, bewildered, attempting to get CCTV footage up on screen. "All of the cameras down there have gone down, James, and the server won't let me bring them back up."

"It is possible to get in through some of the disused sewage piping that was shut down by the council because it was rusting and leaking, but it's difficult." Robert replied, matter-of-factly. "Not without disturbing any nearby Moontors who have moved in either."

"It's fairly safe to assume that this is Zakala. I knew he hadn't gone. Thomas is going to be waiting a long time to catch up with him," James replied. "He's probably after his teleportation device. The Rift has been recharging it. We fell into a trap back at the youth hostel, this whole thing has been planned ahead and now he's moving it into action."

"Laura and I'll go down and apprehend him," Alex stated, checking his under arm holster for his gun.

"Be careful. He's proved before that he's a tricky customer to deal with and he's set this whole thing up for us to fall into. Don't play into his hands. Whatever you do, check every shadow." James warned.

* * *

Alex and Laura carefully walked down the staircase towards the lowest level of the Vaults. The blonde woman and the dark haired man had their Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 4.3s out in front of them, with a torch in the other hand.

"The lights have gone. Typical. Again, we're caught up in a horror movie." Alex stated, igniting his torch. Laura chuckled and checked all the way down the corridor.

"He's not showing up on my PDA." She said, as she shone her torch around the high walls and ceilings of the lower Vaults. "Maybe it was just a false alarm," she added, hopefully.

"I'm afraid not, my dear," said a voice that definitely wasn't Alex. She spun around to come face to face with Zakala. Alex lay at his feet, unconscious on the floor, and Zakala was pointing his gun at her. "Drop your weapons, or I kill the doctor."

Laura carefully placed her gun on the ground on the floor, and passed her torch to Zakala.

* * *

"We haven't heard anything from Laura and Alex for about five minutes. We still can't get the CCTV feeds back up either," Juliet stated. "However, Laura's swipe card has been used to access the Lower Archives down in the base of the Vaults."

James surged out of his office, wearing his black waistcoat and stuffing his Webley into the brown holster, meanwhile, he was carefully putting Zakala's wrist strap into the pocket of his grey trousers. "I'm going down there. I've got to deal with this. Me and Zakala. Nobody follow me."

* * *

James finally arrived at the lowest level of the Archives of the Hub, and found the lights had been activated. Turning sharply to the right, he could see Alex's slumped body. He checked Alex's pulse, and then walked to the right, towards the Archive Room, where he could see Zakala.

Zakala had Alex's gun pointed at that back of Laura's head, ready to fire. James approached the glass panels of the room where Laura was being held hostage by Zakala; it was a room that contained a library of most extra-terrestrial activity that had occurred in this area of the United Kingdom. James tried the door, and found it was deadlocked. He started to try and force the door open with his body, but then realised it was useless.

Zakala opened the door. "Wriststrap." Then, as an afterthought, he added "Please."

James passed it into his hand. "Well done. We fell for your trap. Now, let her go. This is between you and me." In some kind of mocking parody, he also added, "Please."

"Open the Rift James, and I give you the girl!" Zakala yelled, slamming the door in James' face and pointing Alex's gun at Laura again.

"You know I wouldn't, even if I wanted to."

"Of course, I forgot about your principles. How on earth can you justify killing half the people you have killed? You killed your entire species, James, what's to stop you from killing this one?"

"I had to do that! That planet wasn't worth it any more, I couldn't have saved it alone. All because of you!" James shouted back.

"Open the Rift, I can show you planets that are far more worthwhile."

"This planet is far more beautiful and more worth it than you will ever believe! There are wonders that you could not believe, that you will never see because you're so focused on the bigger picture!"

"If you open the Rift, we can go surfing through it and see the wonders of the Universe!"

"Why did you even come to Earth?" James asked, angrily. "You tore my home apart; you are responsible for the creatures that surround you in the Vaults, the Moontors, my family, my people! Now you've come back to torment me."

"I had to follow you, Captain James Harknell. The Higher Ones decreed it." He gestured at Laura's current state, on her knees at his feet with Alex's gun pointed at her head. "Really, all of this is your fault!"

"My fault? Why the hell did you have to bring a Rift here? It began a war before, on my planet, also, it has brought wars on other planets. Why bring one here?"

"As I have been trying to tell you, the Higher Ones decreed it. I can't account for the circumstances if you don't come with me."

"I'd never come with you," James hissed. "You killed my family, now you come here and endanger my new family on Earth. If the sacrifice is one of my own team, to get rid of you for good, then so be it. I'm sorry Laura."

"It is fine, James. Thank you for showing me the wonders of the Universe," Laura stated, with tears starting to form in her eyes.

Zakala cocked the trigger of the gun in his hand. James had to close his eyes as he could see the finger tighten on the trigger. There was a bang and the smell of gunpowder, combined with the smell of fried bacon. When James opened his eyes, there was no Zakala, only Laura's slumped corpse on the ground, with blood trickling from the bullet wound and Alex's gun laid next to her.

* * *

**Apologies for how this ends, I was informed that I was mean for killing Laura off by my beta. Short Epilogue to follow.**


	22. Excalibur: On The Edge Epilogue

Epilogue 

Robert had been working all night on the deletion of Laura's account from the Excalibur network and had bags evident under his eyes as he turned away from the computer. Juliet and Jane were huddled over in the corner by Juliet's workstation, a bunch of Kleenex screwed up in the waste paper bin by her desk. Alex was slumped in the chair at his desk, where he had managed to get some sleep after the post mortem. James looked around at his team and knew that they would have to get through this together.

"I need everyone down in the Vaults, now. We need to say goodbye to Laura." James stated firmly and resolutely. "I want to see all of you down there, to pay your respects to your colleague."

Suddenly, alarm bells began ringing, and James knew exactly who it was who would step through the door, even though he had his back turned to it.

Captain Thomas Sky walked through the door, clad in a black suit and a black tie, with a single white lily in his right hand. The rest of the team turned to greet him and saw his mournful look. James, on the other hand, didn't feel quite ready to look his friend in the eye.

"I thought you were after Zakala," James stated, a distinctly frosty look in his eyes.

"I was. He tricked us, James, sent up a decoy to the star cruiser, which we bought. I returned when I got your message. I'm sorry for your loss. I only wish I could have done something to prevent it," Thomas replied.

"I'll be down in Cold Storage. I'll see you all down there in five minutes." James stated. Alex followed him to check that the freezing process had worked successfully. The medic showed the signs of what had happened to him last night, a large bruise on the right side of his forehead and blood behind the lobe of his right ear.

After everyone had said their final goodbyes, Thomas placed his white lily in the body bag with Laura's corpse. She looked almost as if she was sleeping. James zipped up the body bag, pushed the heavy freezer tray into the storage bay and Robert swung the door shut and locked it.

Juliet, Jane, Alex and Robert returned up to the Hub, meanwhile, Thomas and James lingered.

"She would have waited for me to come back, you know." Thomas stated, with a matter of fact tone in his voice.

"I guess we'll never know now," James replied, comfortable in the knowledge that he knew more than his friend. "What will you do now?"

"I need to find Zakala, and avenge Laura's death. Maybe I'll see you around, when all of this is over. How about you?"

"Keep carrying on. Keep doing what we do. Keep watching. Keep waiting."


	23. Excalibur: World's End Preview

**Briefly, I'd like to thank all of those who read Excalibur: On The Edge, especially Grace Kirk, who betaed the majority of the story, and Lizzie Medcalf who betaed Chapters 11 and the Epilogue. Here is the preview for the third story, which is exciting!**

* * *

"I told you everything would change" James stated, almost cockily.

Zakala's voice crackled over the intercom "I'm sorry, James, but this year, it all ends. And you'll be crying."

"He is coming with a horde of Heavenly Host, with one purpose: the destruction of the World you know."

"James. What. Do. We. Do?" Jane stated, panicking.

"Just keep watching. Waiting. Our chance will come."

"James, I've seen the future. I know what happens. And I damn well know how to stop it!" Captain Thomas Sky stated, confidence oozing in his voice.

"What the hell is that?" Juliet yelled.

James was silent, and broadly grinned as he saw the familiar dark blue Police Box materialise into view. He started running towards the door, with not even a look back. The door creaked open.


End file.
